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“I wasn’t worried you’d be stalking me,” I confirmed although I knew she’d been trying to lighten the mood.
She took a drink of her coffee. The fullness of her lips was distracting. I needed to be leaving. Watching her drink coffee and being turned on by it wasn’t helping matters. I was not good for her. It was that simple. After last night, she had to know it too.
“Leave, Eli. I know you want to go. Just don’t think I’m expecting anything more from you. That wasn’t what last night was about.”
There it was. She wanted me gone. This was what I expected, but a large portion of me had hoped she’d try to get me to stay. When I was near her, life was better . . . no, it was more than better. Seeing her was worth waking up for. It had been so long since I had a reason to open my eyes and live. That was all fantasy though. I could never act on it.
I dropped my arms and straightened. Leave, just leave. That’s all I had to do. What I would do for her sake.
“Thanks for dinner,” I said not sure what the proper goodbye was here.
“Thanks for eating it,” she replied with an amused smirk.
The tacos had been good. I’d told her that last night already so I didn’t say it again just to prolong the inevitable. I made my way to the door. We’d said everything else. Or almost everything else. I paused with my hand on the doorknob. Then figured what the hell. I had one last thing to say.
Glancing back over my shoulder my gaze met hers. She hadn’t moved from her position, but she’d been watching me leave. “The sex was amazing,” I told her.
“I agree,” she replied. Her pleased grin made me want to smile in return, but I didn’t. “Scale from one to ten?” she asked me.
That one was easy. I finally gave into the smile that tugged at my lips. “Best I ever had,” I replied then without giving her a chance to say more, I opened the door and left. I didn’t need to know if I was the best she’d ever had. Or how I ranked on a scale from one to ten.
Honestly, I didn’t like being reminded other men had been inside her and that itself was reason enough for me to get the hell out of here. Too deep. Too easily. I forgot my past when I was with her and I never needed to forget. It was who I had become.
She didn’t call out to me or follow me. It should have been a relief instead of a disappointment. When I got on my bike and cranked it up, I glanced to the kitchen window of the flat. She stood there watching me. I could easily stay right here and look at her for the rest of my life. Seeing what I couldn’t have but wanting to be near her.
She was everything I wish I’d known before.
JUNE 07 / 7:05 PM
Ophelia Finlay
THE KERRINGTON CLUB was a part of my life. It wasn’t just Rosemary Beach’s country club . . . it was a second home as I was growing up. Every big event in my family happened at the Kerrington Club. Weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, cotillion, coming out balls, prom, tennis lessons, and any other event my parents’ circle of friends could dream up. It was always at the club.
Tonight was a first for all of us though. This would be the first movie premier held at the Kerrington Club. Woods Kerrington was the president of the club and his middle son, Blaze, had landed his first main role in a movie. Upon his request, there was a private viewing for friends and family at the club tonight exactly one week before its box office release.
If it wasn’t for the fact my boss, landlord, and best friend wasn’t Blaze’s sister-in-law, I would have probably spent my evening at home. Not that I wasn’t happy for Blaze. I was. Truly, I was. But this was not my kind of event. The getting dressed up was the first annoying thing about it. Black tie seemed a bit much. The cameras going off in our faces as we arrived was even more against my guidelines for a successful Friday night.
I much preferred Netflix and ice cream. Mint chocolate chip to be exact. Also, my pajamas were my choice of attire. Instead, I was in a black cocktail dress that I’d worn three years ago to Phoenix’s graduation party . . . at guess where? The club. I figured no one would remember it. I also didn’t expect to be in any photos considering I wasn’t very close to Blaze, at least since we’d gotten past puberty. I also wasn’t family.
