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An hour later, Abigail waddles over to us with Tristan right behind her. “Okay, I’m going to head out,” she announces, putting her hand on her stomach as Tristan slips his hand in hers. “I’m going to have to ice my feet.” She looks down at her feet. “I just wish I would be able to see them,” she huffs.
“Can you drop me off?” I ask, and she nods at me. We both turn around and kiss our parents goodbye.
I walk out of the venue with my heart beating extra hard, thinking maybe I should have told him I was leaving. I look over my shoulder, not seeing him anywhere, so I get in the car. It’s only when I walk into the house and slip off my shoes does the whole night start to catch up with me.
Alone in the house, I start to pace in the living room back and forth. “What just happened?” I ask myself. “What did he mean by there are things that need to be said?” I march back to my purse and grab my phone to text him. “What could possibly be said that hasn’t? Does he want to tell me what happened in detail?” Just the thought makes me feel like I’m going to vomit all over the place.
Are you up?
I think it will take him a while to get back to me, but the little bubble with the three dots comes up and the phone pings in my hand.
Yes.
Where are you?
My fingers start to type are you alone before going back and deleting the last part. So I just press send for the first part.
At my hotel.
You were right. We need to talk.
I press send and put the phone down on the counter. My hands start to shake just a touch. “This is what needs to happen. We need to talk,” I tell myself. “What is he really doing here? What does he really want? Why after all this time?”
I’m looking down at the phone, waiting to see the little bubble come up with the dots, but they don’t. Instead, I hear a soft knock on the front door.
SIXTEEN
ROMEO
I walk up the steps in the darkness of the night. The sound of crickets fills the air as I hold up my hand and knock softly on the door. The phone in my hand feels like a ticking time bomb. My heart beats so fast that it is all I hear in my ears as I start to breathe even harder.
I watched her walk out tonight with Abigail, and I made my way out as soon as she was gone. My car and driver were there waiting for me. I got in the car and took off the tie as soon as he pulled away from the venue. I called the hotel right away and asked them to have a car waiting for me. It’s times like these that I am sort of happy that my name gets things done.
The minute he pulled up to the hotel, the valet guy had my car door open. He tossed me the car keys, and I walked to the Mercedes waiting for me. I thought about calling her the whole time, but I could hear my therapist’s voice in my head telling me I needed to give her time. My phone pinged the minute I pulled up to her house, and when I looked down and glimpsed her name, I literally thought she was going to ask what the fuck I was doing there. But instead, she asked me if I was up. I was going to sit in the car the whole time until she asked me where I was, then all bets were off. I got out of the car, and here I am, standing on her porch in the middle of the night.
The sound of the lock fills the quiet night as the door pulls open, and she stands there in her dress. “Hi,” I say, holding up my hand awkwardly, not sure what else to say.
“Were you waiting outside the whole time?” she asks, looking over my shoulder at the car I borrowed as soon as I got back to the hotel.
I can’t help but laugh. There is no way I can even lie about it and say I was in the neighborhood because it’s almost midnight. “I was making sure that you were okay,” I say, and the urge to wrap my arm around her waist and take her for another kiss rushes through me. I can still taste her lips on mine.
She folds her arms over her chest. “That sounds very stalkerish.” I clap my hands together and can’t help but throw my head back and burst out laughing, the sound drowning out the crickets. Something that I’ve missed is laughing with her. Even from before, everything was just so easy.
“You are beautiful,” I compliment her, putting my hands in my pockets to stop from touching her. “I promised myself if I ever got you to talk to me again, I would tell you all the time.”
She smiles shyly at me and then glances down before looking back up at me. “Come in,” she invites, moving away from the door to let me step in. I take one step into the house and my head tells me to move in, but instead, I stop in front of her and bend to kiss her lips. “Did you promise yourself that you would just kiss me whenever you pleased?”
“As a matter of fact,” I say, my hand coming up to hold her chin between my thumb and forefinger, “I did.” I give her one more kiss before I let go of her and let my hand slide down and into hers, bringing it to my lips. I kiss her fingers that are linked with mine.
Before I release her hand, I stare into her eyes, hoping she can see everything I’m feeling. She steps forward to close the front door, and I wait for her before we walk back down the hallway to her family room. “Do you want something to drink?” she asks, and I can tell she’s just as nervous as I am.
I shake my head. “I’m good,” I tell her as she walks into her living room. The same room I walked out of the last time. My clothes suddenly feel so much tighter on me. The only thing I did when I left the gala was take off my tie, which is now in my jacket pocket.
She moves to stand in front of me, far enough from me that I won’t be able to reach out and touch her. I have to wonder if she is doing that because she knows if she is close enough, I’ll have the need to reach out and touch her. “We need to talk,” she says as she stands there in front of me, looking more beautiful than ever. Every single time I think she can’t get more beautiful, and every single time she is.
“I’m ready,” I tell her, knowing I’m ready to fight for her. I’m ready to fight for us. I’ve been waiting for this moment for the last six months. I just hope I don’t fuck it up. “I mean, I’ve been ready for a while.” I laugh nervously. “What I did,” I start to say and make sure that she sees me, hears me, “was inexcusable and unforgivable.” I swallow down the lump in my throat. “There is nothing I can say that will justify it. But I’ve been in therapy.”
She shakes her head. “What?”
