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Once he’s gone, I lock the door behind him in case he doubles-back. As I do, the bathroom door opens and Tish steps out, her feet a soft whisper on the floor. She’s fully clothed now in her yellow sundress and white cardigan, her eyes wide and face stiff with worry.
“Is he gone?” she asks.
I nod.
Exhaling the tension from her shoulders, she slips her shoes on. “That was close,” she says.
I say nothing, the conversation still weighing heavily on my thoughts.
Dad was right when he said I’d never had my heart broken before. I’m usually the one doing the heartbreaking. It’s infinitely more fun that way. I’ve never dared to open myself up to anyone enough for it to happen to me.
Tish is the first person I’ve met that made me want to lower those walls. Now, I won’t get the chance.
Does that count as heartbreak? Maybe. Maybe not. I guess I’ll know soon enough. Tish said she couldn’t take this away from her mother and, honestly… I can’t take this away from him, either.
Feeling Tish watching me, her eyes no doubt full of questions now that she knows I lied to her when I said my mother was dead, I avert my gaze.
“You should go,” I say.
A shift of her feet on the floor. “I can stay awhile, if you want me to,” she says slowly. “If you want to talk, or...”
Tempting for sure.
“You should go,” I repeat.
Our eye contact sends a sharp rush down my spine, awakening a need I hoped would be long gone by this morning, but it still radiates with the same warmth as the night we met, the night I first heard her sing.
“Okay,” Tish says, offering a genuine smile that makes me feel absolutely wretched. “I guess I’ll, uh... see you at the wedding.” She shifts her handbag strap up her shoulder, takes a single step toward the door, then pauses. “Oh. He said something about us doing a song?”
“Oh, right,” I say. “He requestsEndless Love.You know it?”
“Every word,” she says with a nod. “You?”
“Nope. But it shouldn’t be too hard to learn by then.”
“Cool.” She shifts again, clearly wanting me to ask her to stay. When I don’t, her shoulders slouch a bit, but she picks them back up. “We can get together later to rehearse or... we can just wing it.”
“I can wing it.”
She tenses again, then exhales. “Then, I’ll see you then.”
“See you then,” I repeat, standing still.
Tish leaves, pausing only briefly at the door to make sure Dad has left for good before walking out.
As the door latches behind her, four soft paws come to rest on the kitchen counter beside me.
“Meow,”Cat Jake says, the word dripping with judgment.
“Yeah.” I offer him my hand and he rubs his head against it. “I liked her, too, buddy.”
Yeah. I can already tell.
If this isn’t heartbreak yet, it’s gonna be.
12
TISH
