“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously,” I said. “Give me hell, Aurora. I can take it. For you? I’ll take it all.”
She studied me for a second, like she was trying to figure out if I was playing with her.
“Alright,” she said slowly. “Well. You might as well get comfortable ‘cause I got a lot of shit to say.”
I nodded once and walked over to the couch and sat down.
Chewy jumped up beside me almost immediately, climbing into my lap. I scratched behind his ear without thinking, letting him settle while I kept my eyes on her.
“Go on.”
She stood there for a second after I said it, deciding where to even start. Her arms crossed over her chest, then dropped. Then she dragged her hands down her face, pacing once across the room before turning back to me. Chewy shifted in my lap, settling his weight. I kept my hand moving over his head while I watched her.
“Go on,” I said again, quieter this time.
She let out a sharp breath.
“Okay,” she said, her hands came up, gesturing as she spoke. “You want honesty? You want communication? Let’s start with the fact that you let me walk around here looking stupid.”
She pointed at me.
“Do you know how crazy everything sounded coming out your mouth last night? Do you even hear yourself when you talk?”
“I do,” I said low.
“No, you don’t,” she snapped. “Because if you did, you would’ve said that shit a long time ago. Instead, you sat there and looked me in my face every day knowing you had history with mymotherand said nothing.”
Her voice cracked just a little on the word mother.
“And now I’m supposed to just…what? Process that like it’s normal?”
“It’s not normal,” I agreed.
“No shit,” she shot back. “I’m embarrassed. I’m confused. And yeah—” she pointed at me again—“I’m disgusted.”
That word hit again but she went on. “You don’t see how that looks? You don’t see how that makes me feel?”
“I do.”
“Then say it,” she demanded. “Say it out loud. Say why it’s messed up.”
I held her gaze.
“…because I should’ve told you before anything happened between us.”
“That’s part of it,” she said. “Keep going.”
I clenched my jaw slightly.
“…because it blurs lines that shouldn’t be blurred.”
She laughed.
“Blurs lines?” she repeated. “That’s what you going with?”
“What do you want me to say, Aurora?”
