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Chris groaned on the other end. “Do I want to hear the rest of this story?”
“Yes. This ends up good for you.”
“Does it now?”
“You’ll have to show me you can be a good listener and you’ll find out.”
When silence descended on the other end, she grinned, relieved it wasn’t as hard as she’d thought it was going to be to tell him what she hid away from everyone else.
“When I met Hunter, he was everything a girl could ask for. Other girls were jealous of me for the first time in my life, and I hate to say it, but I liked how that felt. Although it didn’t last long. Sure, on paper, Hunter was great, but he made me feel like…like he was doing me a favor by being with me. He was never physically or emotionally abusive, he just had a tendency to forget about me.”
Chris grunted. She was sure he had things he wanted to say, yet he only listened. Like she asked.
“I grew up feeling that way—not with my family and my best friends, obviously—but with guys. It never occurred to me that I could feel anything different. Until I met you. You made me feel like I deserved so much more, that I was so much more.”
“Because you are,” he said, almost as if he’d been holding it in, and he couldn’t do it anymore.
“I want you to know how important you are to me,” Bronte said. “Because you showed me what was possible.”
Three little words entered Bronte’s mind, but she fought them away, deciding it was much too early to feel them, let alone say them. “So, birthday boy, you’ve been a very good listener.”
“Yes. I have,” he agreed, and she could hear the smile in his voice.
“I suppose it’s time for your present now.”
“I suppose it is.”
Bronte held her phone away to press a few buttons and send him the short video she’d made this morning in bed.
“What’s this?” he asked after a few moments.
“You like movies, so I made one of my own.”
A few moments passed, and then he blurted a squeaky, “Are you serious?”
“You’ll have to watch it to find out, but do it when you’re alone. It’s definitely not safe for work. In the meantime, I’m going to finish my dinner. Have fun, Chris.”
