At first she was relieved that he seemed to understand. Practice. Yes. That was exactly what she needed. The smile that lit up her face fell in the next instant when he was standing and patting her on the shoulder and she was off the couch, grabbing his arm as he started to mount the steps.

"No. Wait..Julian," she swallowed, stepping up to meet his eyes a step higher than him. Her voice dropped a bit then, her eyes pleading with his own as she voiced her request more accurately.

"I meant...with you. I...," she looked away from him for a moment before forcing herself to look back up. "I meant, Julian, could you help me? I just...I don't feel like...I feel comfortable around you. You did, after all, see me in nothing more than my rather...sheer top in Greece. And you've kept that to yourself. I trust that I could come to you for this and you'd keep it to yourself as well. And I just don't have any other guys I'm nearly close enough to to even think of asking - and I would never dream of asking Matthew. Why advertise to the guy I like that I think I need to be better at kissing?"

She broke off at last, took a breath and waited.