AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know.”
“But you sound disappointed.”
“Of course I’m disappointed. There’s a big difference between knowing you’ll have to go back eventually and finding out eventually is now.”
“Well, not now. Soon.”
She nodded. “Soon, then. Soon is still finite. Eventually…that’s a much bigger concept of time.”
He got up, not liking how alone she seemed on the bed. For her story it had felt okay, but now that they were talking about something pertaining to them both, it felt awkward and cold to have so much distance between them.
Sitting close enough for their knees to touch, he held his hand out palm up, and she put hers in it. Compared to the clammy sweat of his big mitt, her hand was warm and dry. He wished he’d thought to rub the dampness off on his pants before going for a handhold. Amateur move.
“What do you want to do about it?” he asked.
“About you leaving?”
“No, about us.”
“You leaving sort of factors into the whole us thing, doesn’t it?”
“Not necessarily.”
“I don’t know. You’re still going to be…there. And I’ll be here. And how does that really work, you know? I think long distance is kind of bullshit.”
Alex laughed, then got serious. “Do you want to sleep with anyone else?”
“Do you?”
“I asked you first.”
“No. Of course not.”
“Neither do I.”
“Okay…”
“Do you want to be with me, Alice? Don’t think, just answer.”
“Yes.”
“So that’s it then.”
“That’s what then?”
“We give it a try. The whole bullshit long-distance thing. And when I finish the season, we reassess. Georgia and Florida aren’t different planets. And it’s not like moving is unheard of.”
“Who moving where? You can’t expect me to totally change Liv’s life on a whim.” Her voice hitched up, not quite hysterical but edging on panic. Clearly Alice wasn’t big on change.
“I’m not. I’m saying we see where we are in October. I think it’s silly to call it quits just because I’m going back to California.” The conversation felt like déjà vu, only this time things seemed to be leaning more in his favor. “Look at it this way, even when we weren’t together, we still talked every day, didn’t we?”
She blushed. “I guess.”
“And you said you want to be with me.”
“I do.”
“So this isn’t rocket surgery, Darling. Communication is half the battle…or something. We’ll talk. We’ll talk a lot. We’ll talk dirty a lot. Maybe you Skype me topless sometimes.”
