AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We really did. I’m sorry I wrecked your car, and for anything else I might have wrecked,” she apologized.
“I’m sorry, too. Sometimes I was a complete asshole. I should’ve called you,” he said, and she laughed.
“Yeah, it would’ve been nice, but I understand. I was an even bigger asshole,” she joked.
“Sometimes. But sometimes you were pretty great. So can I call you? Maybe we can hang out?” he asked, feeling stupid as he pulled his phone out of his back pocket. It felt lame, asking a girl to just "hang out" when he already knew what she felt like from the inside. She swallowed thickly and began chewing on the side of her thumb.
“Sure, but I mean ...” she started and let her voice drift off. He glanced at her.
“What?” he asked, before reaching out and pulling her hand away from her face. Like no time had passed between them.
“What about the busty blonde?”
Parker laughed long and loud for a while.
“Oh god, you are an amazing woman,” he laughed, getting to his feet. “There is no busty blonde. She was just an accountant friend, she knew my uncle’s new wife.”
Her face turned red and he chuckled, picking up her cell phone up from the coffee table. She had a fancy new smartphone, he was happy to see. He called his phone from it and stored her number.
“So you’re living living in Seattle? You’re not going back to New York, or the Bahamas, at some point?” she asked, standing up as well. He shook his head.
“No, I’m gonna stay here. I moved into my dad’s condo, it’s right downtown. Penelope is staying in a home he owned in Capitol Hill,” he replied.
They were silent for a second. Paige swallowed thickly and looked around her apartment, basically at everywhere but him. He wasn’t sure what that meant. He hadn’t really had a plan when he'd decided to go see her. A tiny part of him had secretly hoped for explosions and that she would throw herself into his arms and profess how she couldn’t live without him, how she had loved him from the start. But that was ridiculous. Most of him had just hoped it would go as well as it had gone. She was healthy and happy, and she didn’t seem to hate him. She seemed open to the idea of being friends. She also seemed ... different from the last time he'd seen her. Gentler.
Hell, she'd only said the F word once.
She also looked even more beautiful than he'd remembered.
He coughed suddenly, trying to clear his thoughts.
Eight months was a long time. He didn’t really have a clue as to what she'd been doing with herself the whole time, besides working. She mentioned friends, which was a little bit of a surprise. She could very well be an entirely different person. She might not feel the same way about him anymore. Then again, he'd never really been clear on how exactly she felt about him the first time around. She certainly wasn't making any romantic gestures towards him now. Not that she ever had ... he could feel himself starting to get depressed. It wasn't right. Seeing her again had been one of the best moments of his year, he wasn't going to let that feeling get ruined.
“Well, I gotta get going,” he said quickly, feeling silly. She finally looked at him, frowning.
“So soon? You just got here,” she pointed out and he nodded, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Yeah. I don’t wanna take up anymore of your time, and I’ve got some errands to run,” he replied. She pouted her lower lip out and he almost groaned as they made their way to the door.
For a moment in time, I owned those lips.
“Okay. Well, don’t be a stranger. Don’t wait two months to call me,” she joked.
“I won’t, I won’t. Don’t let that blond cafe guy grill you too hard about me,” he ordered. She rolled her eyes.
“Thank god I don’t have to go to work for a week. Maybe he’ll forget by then,” she laughed. Parker stood in the doorway, smiling down at her.
“You know, I know we weren’t together all that long, but I’ve really missed you, Paige. I thought about you, a lot,” he told her. She smiled, leaning against her door frame.
“I thought about you a lot, too,” she replied in a whisper.
Parker reached out and gently grabbed her by the back of the neck, pulling her forward. She let herself be pressed against him and he kissed her on the top of her head. He probably lingered that way for too long, but he didn’t care. She'd always felt so right against him.
“I’ll call you, okay?” he assured her as he stepped back. She managed a nod, but didn’t say anything. He waved and turned down the hall. He glanced back when he got to the elevator, but she'd closed her door. Hadn't even lingered long enough to watch him properly leave. Not really a good sign for him. With a sigh, he got on the elevator and hit the down button.
Mission failed, Joey.
