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Oh my God, I kissed him. I kissed another girl’s boyfriend.
Her heart started racing, and she felt as if she might be sick. This was all hitting far too close to home for her, and she knew she needed to get out of there.
Immediately.
With trembling hands Leah snapped the lid back on the coffee and turned, gasping loudly as the can slipped from her fingers and crashed at her feet. The top popped off, spraying coffee grounds across the floor.
Da
He looked at her, the corner of his mouth lifting in a smile as he brought one of his hands down and touched his finger to his nose.
“Not it for cleaning that up,” he said, his voice husky with sleep.
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
Confusion instantly marred the playful look on his face, and he took his finger off his nose and slid his hand up into his hair. She didn’t plan on blurting it out that way, but she couldn’t stand this any longer.
“No,” he said. “I already told you I didn’t.”
“You also told me you lied to me.”
Da
“Do. You. Have. A. Girlfriend?” she asked, her voice livid. “Yes or no?”
“No. I swear to you, Leah. No, I don’t.”
She stared at him and he stared right back, never breaking eye contact. He seemed completely sincere, which ironically only made things worse, because now she was more confused than ever.
“What did you lie to me about, then?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
She laughed bitterly, shaking her head. “I can’t do this. I can’t play these games.” She walked toward him and twisted her body, squeezing between him and the doorframe before she stormed into the living room and grabbed her purse. She turned and came to an abrupt halt, nearly walking right into his chest. Da
“Leah, please,” he said, and she shook her head, refusing to make eye contact.
“I can’t take lying, Da
“Please. Can you just let me explain?”
Leah closed her eyes, exhaling softly. Part of her just wanted to distance herself from the whole situation as soon as possible, but the other part of her desperately wanted to hear what he had to say. If she left now, she knew a piece of her would always wonder if she’d made the right decision, and in a way, she was almost more afraid of that than of being vulnerable with him.
She opened her eyes, keeping them trained on the floor, but she nodded slightly, and Da
She turned her back on him, walking over to the couch and taking a seat, and he sat on the coffee table in front of her, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. He dropped his head and took a deep breath before he lifted his eyes back to hers.
“First of all, thank you for taking care of me last night. I’m sorry you had to deal with me like that.”
“Don’t apologize for that. I didn’t mind taking care of you. That’s not why I’m upset.”
He nodded gently as he wet his lips. “I just…I want to make this better, but I don’t even know what I said to you last night.”
She sat up a bit straighter, ru
“Look,” she said. “I don’t want to play games with you. You’re always so back and forth, and I don’t like that I never know what to expect from you.”
He pulled his brow together before dropping his eyes to the floor, and Leah chewed on the corner of her lip, summoning the courage to say the rest.
“I mean, can we just be real with each other? I like you. I really do. And if you don’t or you can’t feel the same way, for whatever reason, then just tell me.”
He lifted his eyes back to hers, a defeated expression on his face. “I do like you, Leah. A lot. That’s the problem.”
“Why is that a problem?”
Da
“What did you lie to me about?”
He sat up, gripping the edge of the coffee table. “I never lied to you. Everything I’ve told you about myself is true. It’s just…there are things I haven’t told you.”
“Lies of omission, then.”
Da
“What are you talking about? What haven’t I told you?”
Da
Leah pursed her lips as his point hit home. There were things he didn’t know about her either. Things she chose not to share. How could she condemn him for something she herself had done?
“Okay,” she said, kicking her shoes off before sitting cross-legged on the couch. Leah pulled the throw pillow onto her lap as she said, “She died in a car accident. Some guy was driving drunk and came over the divider. Hit her head on.”
Da
“About fifteen years ago.”
The room fell silent, and Leah kept her eyes on the throw pillow as she picked at a fraying thread. After a few seconds, she saw him lean forward, and she looked up to see him resting his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped in front of his mouth.
“Does it get easier?” he asked.
The second the words left his mouth, something passed between them, and she smiled sadly. “In some ways yes, and in others, not even remotely.”
He nodded, his eyes dropping to watch her fingers play with the loose thread on the pillow.
“Who did you lose?”
He swallowed hard, and it was a moment before he said, “My best friend.”
“Bryan?” she asked, and his eyes flashed to hers as he straightened abruptly.
“How did you know that?”
She shrugged. “It was just a guess. The round of shots at the bar. Tommy said they were for Bryan, and you seemed to get upset.”
Da
The room fell silent again, and Da
“How long ago?” she asked, pretty sure she already knew the answer.
“Yesterday was a year.”
Leah nodded. They both knew he didn’t need to say anything else, and it was a moment before he spoke the words that were like a slap to her face. “He was Catherine’s grandson.”
Her head snapped up, and unexpectedly, her eyes filled with tears. She had no idea why that affected her the way it did, but the idea of that woman burying her grandson absolutely crushed her. An image of Catherine flashed in her mind: the oversized jacket, the big bulky gloves, the man’s ring hanging from a chain on her neck.
Was it possible those things were Bryan’s?
She closed her eyes, forcing a tear to spill over, and before she could react, she felt the pad of his thumb brush under her eye, sweeping it away.
Leah opened her eyes and looked at him; he had the most tender expression on his face, and she suddenly realized how backward it was, that he was comforting her over the death of his friend. She reached up and took his hand, sandwiching it between both of hers as she brought them to rest on the pillow in her lap.