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Chapter Thirty

LIKE A ZOMBIE, I push past Dakota and stand in front of Nora. “A husband?” My voice is high, broken at best.

She blinks at me, and I hear Dakota approaching behind me. Nora sighs. “It’s a long story.”

A long story?

A long story is adding a lot of details to something. A long story is much simpler than a secret freaking husband. This is worse than her being a spy. Much worse. She has a freaking husband and yet is acting like I just found out she had a sandwich for lunch. I don’t know if she really doesn’t see how big a deal—how grown-up—this situation is, or if she just doesn’t take me seriously. I feel like she’s writing off my emotions, and I’m exhausted. I can’t keep playing cat-and-mouse with her when she’s never going to give in. I need answers.

“A story you didn’t share me with me,” I quietly say. “A pretty important story.”

Nora nods, calm and collected, the exact opposite of me right now. I feel like I’m being stuffed into a closet that’s too hard to escape. Is she worth all of this trouble? Why can’t she just tell me what’s going on? I thought she trusted me.

I look at her and try to see inside her. I explore her, remembering how much progress we made tonight. The memory of her laughter rings through my head. The way her fingers feel massaging my skin and the way her sweet mouth tastes. She’s left a pretty hefty mark on me. I don’t know if I’ll be the same after she’s done with me.

Another thing I can’t forget is how she has been making me feel so good about myself. So powerful. So normal. So okay being me.

But how much weight does that tiny dot of truth hold when it’s swimming in a lake of secrets and lies?

“I’m not going to stand here and fight with her all night,” Nora whispers to me, just out of Dakota’s earshot.

But Dakota clearly has other plans. “Oh, so you didn’t tell him?” she exclaims loudly. “Well, don’t feel too bad, she didn’t tell us either until we got a bill for him.” In my daze I don’t hear the rest of what she says, but Dakota keeps harping, and I know one of these words is going to cause one of us to snap. It’s like the whistling of the wind just before a storm, you can feel it coming.

Nora explodes right back. “It wasn’t any of your business, Dakota. And it still isn’t. I didn’t tell you anything about my life because it doesn’t concern you. You’re not entitled to know what’s happening outside of that apartment. The only thing you should be concerned about is whether or not I paid the rent.”

Dakota snaps her mouth shut and opens it again. “You—”

“Both of you—stop it! We aren’t going to stand here and bicker all night.” I look at both of the women, wearing identical expressions. “Stop it.” They both look so surprised to be called out.

Dakota talks first: “We aren’t bickering. Just tell her lying ass—”

“Stop it!” I raise my voice.

Dakota’s eyes widen. Nora is silent, staring at me with calm eyes. I need to talk to her, alone. With Dakota here nothing is going to get resolved. “Dakota. Go home. I’ll come get you in the morning. Text me your flight and I’ll see if I can get on it. But you need to go, now.” I look at her to make sure she knows I’m serious.

“You’re choosing her over me?” Dakota asks, and my stomach aches.

I know what she’s thinking: after all this time, all of our memories, I’m choosing a stranger over her. It’s not that way at all, but it’s going to be how she interprets it. This must be strange for her; I wonder if she feels her little world shifting the way I do? I’ve never done anything in the past that would even be considered close to choosing anyone over her. I’ve had her back since we were kids, since she caught mean old Mr. Rupert’s dog and tried to drop it off at the animal

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