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Chapter Sixteen
The next week went by quickly with Colby working a lot of hours on his documentary project and me balancing volunteer time at the hospital with my physical therapy.
After receiving the all-clear from my doctor to start driving on Friday morning, the first thing I did was have the car service drop me off at my apartment to pick up my own car. I couldn’t believe how much I missed the simple act of driving. I was practically giddy with the regained freedom.
Once I returned to Colby’s house, I packed up my things, surprised I’d accumulated so much over the last few weeks. With my car filled, I arrived back at my place and began the painful process of schlepping stuff, making several trips up and down the stairs to the second story. The irony wasn’t lost on me that I’d be moving out in another month and trekking everything down again. Of course, I’d yet to figure out exactly where that would be.
By the time I was done, I’d worked up a quite a sweat and my ankle, now sporting a brace was throbbing. After jumping in the shower, I curled up atop my own bed for the first time in weeks to ice my swollen joint and rest my eyes. I woke to a very irritated voice.
“What the hell, Kenz? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you the last hour. Then I drive home to find, not only are you gone, but you moved out?”
“What?” I sat up, rubbing my eyes and trying to process in my sleepy mind what Colby was saying.
“You moved out without a word.” He took a seat on the bed beside me, a healthy dose of irritation in his expression.
“I received the all-clear that I could drive today and figured this was the plan all along.” It hadn’t occurred to me he’d be upset about it since me living with him had always been a temporary situation. Just because we were having sex now didn’t mean I was moving in, so I hadn’t given a second thought to him taking offense over my going back home. If anything, I would’ve assumed he’d be relieved to have his space back.
“I know I’m new to this whole couple’s thing, but do you think you could’ve told me first?”
My eyes went wide. “Can I use one of my relationship advice lifelines to phone a friend for help?”
A smile teased his lips. “What do you think they’d say?”
“That, at the very least, I should’ve texted you and, at the very most, I could’ve talked to you about it.” I was as new to this relationship thing as he was, but it was obvious I should’ve communicated better.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I thought that maybe with the hours I’ve been working, not to mention the fact that we haven’t had sex in a few days, and I haven’t taken you out on a date in quite a while—God, I sound like a fucking girl.”
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. He was being vulnerable and, obviously, it wasn’t sitting well. I’d been on my period this week so the not-having-sex hadn’t bothered me. “No, I’m pretty sure you’re simply telling me how it made you feel, and I hear that’s what normal couples do. I obviously wasn’t thinking how it would look to you, and I planned on driving back to your place, but I accidently fell asleep. Why were you trying to get a hold of me?”
He sighed. “Because I was pissed off.”
“With me?”
Exasperation clouded his features. “Yes, with you.”
Clearly, I’d missed something. “So you came over here angry with me for moving out because when you’d tried to talk to me about being pissed off, I wasn’t at your house?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds ridiculous and makes me want to kick my own ass.”
I no longer fought my smile. “What on earth did I tick you off about?”
“Mark told me today he’s looking at international volunteer organizations because you’re planning to travel abroad come fall.”
“Oh, that.” I hadn’t meant to keep it from him, but in hearing the way he’d found out, it sure seemed that way.
“Yeah, that. Jesus. And I thought I was bad at this communication thing.”
I hit him with a pillow. “Maybe I’m trying to make you feel better about your inadequacies.”
“Mission fucking accomplished then,” he muttered, sounding wounded.
I reached for his hand. “Hey. I’m sorry. I haven’t made a decision and only mentioned it to Brian who, in turn, said that before I took any steps, he wanted Mark to do a background check on the organization. A woman at work brought up the program, and I was curious. That’s the furthest I went with it. In my defense though, I did tell you I might want to travel and see the world.”
“So, you’re seriously thinking about it?”
Yes, however up until now, I hadn’t thought about how it might affect my relationship with him if I did leave. “I love the way working with kids and doing music makes me feel.”
He stroked my face. “You’re absolutely amazing at it, and I’d never be upset you’d pursue it. I was just caught off guard when Mark mentioned it casually over the phone this afternoon—that I heard it from him instead of you.”
