Common

It worked. Really, truly, that was all that mattered.

I might be half the gray mare's size (not really, but close enough), but I still managed to have a rather marked effect on her. Triumph flushed wildly in my chest and I could feel the slender arch of my neck drawing tight as I drew in the breath she'd exhaled.

I had no idea what to do with her closeness. In truth, this was the closest I'd ever come to liking anyone at all in a way that might actually turn out to have some sort of tangible outcome. If she was claiming me, which it certainly seemed like she was going to do, then there was a strong possibility she might actually stick around long enough for feelings to fill in around this flirtation. It was a strange thought and it made me sort of giddy, spurring on a nervousness I did not often feel. I was not a nervous mare by nature. Rude. Abrasive. A flirt. Too confident for my own good. Sure, all of those things. But nervous? Not often.

"Darn," I murmur, pitching my voice low in the hopes it might encourage her to lean in to listen. "I was hoping you might tell me you wanted me, at least."

A sudden thrum of hoofbeats nearby yanked by attention away and I looked up to see a stallion approaching. Little did I know, he would soon be shattering the cozy little fantasy I'd been building in my head.