“Are you here to break up with me?” The words are out before I’ve given a second thought to their meaning. I don’t know that I even want the answer though.
Athena’s feet squeak to a halt behind me. “Uh… That’s my cue to…” She flees from the room, her bedroom door clicking shut as she leaves us alone.
I twist the hem of my shirt. “I mean, I’d get it. I’m a hot mess right now. I’m still kind of pissed at you for withholding things from me, and I know you said you don’t think I told Tabitha all those things about you, but do you believe that?” I try to drag my hand through my hair but it gets stuck, and I cuss under my breath. “I didn’t. I mean, at least not on purpose. I told Athena, and I think someone overheard.” The more words tumble out of my mouth, the more I realize my righteous indignation isn’t so righteous. Oof. This is so on me.
I suck in another deep breath. “So just tell me, are you here to end things?”
As he steps toward me, the towel falls off his shoulders onto the floor. “No.”
“No?”
“I made an executive decision shortly after I read Tabitha’s tattle.”
“Is that so?” I idly fold my arms across myself. I’m not sure what he’s going to say, and even though he says he’s not ending things between us, it’s as though my body knows I need to protect myself in case it’s not good.
“I decided we aren’t going to have a third act break up. No gross miscommunication, no dark night of the soul, no catharsis. The information was bound to come out eventually, you say you didn’t do it on purpose, I believe you. And I’m not willing to let it come between us.”
He’s lost me, and from the slight stitch pinching his eyebrows, he knows it. Stepping toward me again, he tries once more. “You read romance novels just like I do. You know how at like seventy or eighty percent of the way through the book one of the couple does something stupid, or the other personthinksthey did something stupid? There’s a huge fight, they break up, and then they mope around for a few chapters before someone close to them smacks them upside the head with common sense?”
I get it now and nod.
“We aren’t having that, Savannah. I’ve decided. I know I’ve been shit at communicating with you. I know we have baggage between us, and we have some things to work out for sure. But if it’s okay with you, I want to skip over all the break up part so we can work through it all, together.”
“You’re breaking up with the third act break up?” I quirk a brow. “How progressive.”
“Yes. I am.” He nods and a few droplets of water from his still semi-wet hair course down his cheek.
“Can you just…do that?”
He shrugs with that lazy smile that lights me up, and if it isn’t the cutest thing I ever did see. “The author can do whatever they want to, Vannah. And this, what we have? This is our story. We’re the authors. We can write our story however the hell we want it to go. And I don’t want to let some stupid miscommunication or in the moment reaction ruin what we’re building. So yeah. I decided we’re changing the rules.” He pauses, reaching out a hand to cup my chin and stroke my cheek with the side of his thumb. “If you want to.”
I’m acutely aware that the only piece of clothing he’s wearing is a towel wrapped around his middle. And I’m almost sure that Athena has her ear pressed against her bedroom door listening to every word we’re saying.
“What’s it going to be, pretty girl? Are we writing our story how we want it to go?”
I lean into the warmth from his hand cupping my face. “How do we want it to go?” My voice is barely a whisper.
Some painfully insecure part of me needs to hear him say it out loud. That he’s not leaving, that he’s choosing me over the chaos, that he wants to be with me. That I’m not unlovable.
“I love you, Savannah Jane.”
I’m pretty sure my heart stops, and I’m holding the breath that the heroine in romance novels always forgets she’s holding.
“I love you, and I want to be with you. Probably forever, but I don’t want to freak you the fuck out right now so we’ll just leave it at ‘I want to be with you’ and call it good, okay?”
“Yessss!” Athena’s gleeful voice hisses through her door before there’s a thunk. “Fuck. Shit. Ouch.”
Hopefully karma bit her in the funny bone for eavesdropping on my conversation, and I’m a little smug about that right now.
Rolling my lips between my teeth so I don’t laugh out loud, I nod. “I love you too, Justin.”
He shakes his head. “Not finished.”
I bite down on my lips again and swallow the giggle bubbling its way up into my chest. “I like it when you’re bossy.”
He winks. “I’ll have to remember that. I wanted to add that I’m here for you, however you need. If you want to spit into a tube and find out your genealogy, I’ll hold the tube. If you want to go to libraries and research your birth parents and their family tree, I’ll get paper cuts from turning the pages. And if you need a buffer to go visit your parents until things feel better between you, I’ve got you. I’ll even drive so you don’t have to get back on a plane any time soon.”
Whatever I did to deserve this amazing guy, I hope I keep doing it. Tears course down my cheeks as I nod, and a couple things happen all at once.
