Cute that he thinks I’m coming back. But also…huh. Nothing explosive? Nothing manipulative? Nothing but a mature reply?
“Wait. Just one more thing.”
Oh shit. Here it comes.
I watch him reach into the open window. His hand crosses over my body and toward the ignition. Damn it. He better not steal my keys. I don’t stop him though. I merely watch.
Phew. He just turned off the car.
“What are you going home for?” he asks casually, like it’s normal to be having a light conversation in the middle of the street with a girl he confessed his love to in the middle of an orgasm.
And probably because of all of those juxtaposing facts, here’s where all rational thinking goes out the window that’s wide open beside me.
I say, “Gotta check on my cat.”
“You don’t have a cat.
“My neighbor does.”
“And?”
“And the little nugget sometimes comes for a visit when he’s hungry or locked out.”
“Does she?”
“Ya, she does. She loves the snacks I give her.”
“He or she?”
“What?”
“You said ‘he’ first. Then you said ‘she.’”
“Does it matter?” I’m super flustered right now.
“Yup. It matters a lot, actually.”
I don’t know what we’re talking about anymore. But he just pats the frame of my car, looks me dead in the eye and says, “I know what you’re doing, Summer. If you need the space, take it. But just remember one thing, babe. I’m the exception. We’re friends. Always will be. You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’ll see you when you get back.”
He walks away, presumably back into the bar, but I don’t take notice of that fact because I’m stunned in my seat. I’m too shocked to cry. Numb. I’m not angry. Not relieved. Not anything. Pure shock is filtering through my system while I process what just happened.
I don’t understand it yet, but I do know one thing. That little valve of my heart is still tightly sealed. No seeping air. No deflating. Weird to think of my heart as a balloon, shouldn’t that be my lungs? Nurses would hate this analogy. But it’s my heart, and I say it still feels inflated.
So I don’t drive home. At least, not back to Calgary. Instead, I drive straight back to my hotel. And I sit there. Thinking. For a long ass time until I finally send the text that I should have sent all along.
Me: Come see me.
There’s no reply, but Eli arrives within fifteen minutes, knocking on my door. I don’t waste a second, I throw open the door and haul him inside, slamming him against the wall. My mouth is on his, eager to taste him. He’s unlike any man I’ve ever known.
His hands grab my ass and pull me in close.
“What.” He kisses me full on with his tongue sweeping into my mouth, pulls back, takes a deep breath, and finishes his sentence. “Changed?”
“I love you, too.” Breathlessly, I confess. “I’m an idiot, Eli.”
“I’m the idiot, I should have never said that in the middle of having sex.”
“It doesn’t matter. You did. And I hated it. But then I loved it. And I love you. This is unlike anything I’ve ever had before. You didn’t get mad at me. You didn’t manipulate me. You’re not toxic. You’re a very mature human being.”
