AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sonia stares at me. “Edwin, I can’t do this.”
“You don’t have to do anything, just let me…” If I can say what I need to, I can fix everything. I’m sure I can. At least, I think I’m sure. Oh god. “Let me just talk. Alright?”
She sighs. That’s as much of a “yes” as I’ll get.
“Sonia, I…” I take a few steps closer.
This isn’t how I wanted to say this. In a moment of panic, where I have her cornered. But I’ve thought it over, really thought it through.
And it’s a much better choice than coming back to reality, walking into the club, and doing it there while she’s working.
That’s what’s always been the trouble with our relationship. Apart from the whole Nate thing.
But could that be a problem for me if I didn’t know until it was too late?
“I am thinking of you always. I have tried to untangle my thoughts from you. Tried to grasp the idea of moving on. And I just can’t. Because I love you.”
Wow, the words were so much easier to say than I thought. They feel so right when I say them to her.
“Edwin.” She shakes her head. “Not this. Not here.”
“It’s okay. Nate knows. He–”
Sonia tries to walk past me, but I intercept her, placing my hands against her shoulders.
“Let me go, Edwin.” There is not much heft in her voice.
I know she doesn’t really want to go before she hears what I have to say.
“Sonia, please, I have been falling in love with you. I never thought I was capable of these feelings. People would get married and fall in love around me, and I thought they were joking, I thought it was all some ruse.”
She tries to step away again, but once more, I intercede.
“Life for me has always been work. They have been synonymous. And then I met you.”
“I can’t be your reason for changing. That’s not how people work.”
“Yes, it is. It’s you, it’s–” That’s not totally true, is it? “Because of you, I have completely changed.”
Sonia balls her hands up in front of her pressing on my chest. “I can’t be your reason.”
“It’s not just you, it’s…it’s–”
Spit it out, Edwin.
I shut my eyes and take a deep breath.
It’s time to let the truth come out.
“Just before my forty-ninth birthday, I was working late, overtime, as usual. I bent over to pick up a file.”Such a simple fucking task.
My mind flicks back to the searing pain that overcame me that night, after midnight in my office at theclub. “The moment I tried to get back up, my body gave out. My back it was–”
I can’t help the shudder that takes over me. “I was frozen on the ground. I was alone and couldn’t get to my phone, but even if I had been able to…” I take a deep breath.
Despite the physical pain I was under, nothing hurt as bad as knowing I was alone. “I would’ve had to call Solomon. And he would have come running, I know he would. He’s a good friend. But…my children. If I had called my children, would they have come? Would they have rushed to make sure I was okay?”
She shakes her head. “Of course, they would have–”
