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“Yeah, that’s awful. Megan is such a lovely person.”
“Sometimes bad things happen to good people,” he said. “It's life, sad as it is. At least she's going to be okay. It could have been worse.”
“True,” I agreed.
“Well, let's get you home. You’ve got work to do,” he said.
The drive home was pretty relaxed. Garrett and I had a good chat, but I could tell he was turning on the charm. I had mixed feelings about that. I was still kind of up in the air over the whole Emerson issue. In fact, as much as I didn’t like it, Emerson had been running through my thoughts all evening. There was no way I should or could get into anything with Garrett, even though it was becoming fairly obvious he might want me to.
We pulled up outside my apartment building, and I unclipped my seatbelt. “Thanks so much for a wonderful evening, Garrett. I enjoyed it.”
The blue backlight from his radio lit up the smile on his face. “It really has been a great night,” he said. And then he leaned across the seat and tried to kiss me.
I pulled back and placed a hand on his chest to keep him at a bit of a safe distance. “I'm… I'm sorry, I'm not ready for this right now.”
Again, that look from earlier briefly flashed across his eyes, a look that was almost rage, but again he quickly concealed it. “I'm sorry,” he apologized. “I couldn't help it. I mean, we had such a great time together tonight, and you're just so beautiful, Brooke. I couldn't stop myself.”
“No, it's uh, it's okay,” I stammered. “Let's just take things slowly, alright? I mean, really slowly. Okay?”
He smiled. “Of course. Slow. I'll take it as slow as you'd like me to.”
“Thank you, Garrett. That means a lot.”
“Whatever you need. I guess I should bid you a goodnight, Brooke. But before I do, do you mind if I come with you to the bachelor auction tomorrow?”
“I think that can be arranged,” I said.
“Great,” he responded as he jumped out of his side of the car and rushed around to open my door. “I guess I’ll see ya tomorrow!”
“It would appear so,” I agreed.
“Well, then, goodnight, Brooke.”
“Goodnight, Garrett.”
He waited until I was opening my apartment door before he put his car in gear. I watched him roar off into the night, and an eerie sensation told me that I'd just dodged a bullet of some sort.
I made quick work of getting undressed as soon as I dropped my purse off in my room. I was on my way to the shower when my phone buzzed. I guessed it would be Garrett, sending a good night message or something of the sort, so I waited until I had taken off my makeup and had a shower before I even checked it.
It was a good thing I was sitting on my bed when I opened the message app because I probably would have lost my balance from shock if I'd been standing when I saw who it was from.
Emerson.
My pulse instantly began to race. After everything that had happened in recent days, how could it not?
I paused for a moment, trying to decide if opening the message was even the right thing to do. I wasn’t convinced he deserved even the time of day. However, I had more questions than answers and Emerson was the only place I was going to get those answers. Granted, there was a chance he was merely going to spout a pack of lies and excuses. Or not.
An array of emotions whirled through my mind as I sat staring at the little green unread message icon next to his name—fear, anger, hope, excitement, suspicion. Each one spinning in a madly-shaken cocktail.
There were only two options: delete the message without even reading it and never speak to Emerson again, or give him the benefit of the doubt and see what he had to say for himself.
It was a battle of heart versus head. In the past, I’ve always lead with my head rather than my heart. And, I knew what my head was telling me to do.
I hovered my thumb over the little red delete option and then quickly tapped it. A message appeared on the screen: Delete message. Are you sure? OK or Cancel.
My head was still in charge here. It had to be for my heart’s sake.
To my head’s surprise, my heart still had some fight left in it; it wasn't going to give up so easily. My thumb shifted toward OK but then suddenly stopped, suspended just above the screen for what felt like an eternity, paralyzed with indecision as my heart and head battled it out in a ferocious duel.
