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The blonde seemed discomforted by the mention of my accident as she shifted on her high heels. “Well, I was just asking because, um, if you wanted to—”
“I'm really sorry,” I interjected, taking her elbow in a gentle hand. “I gotta stop you there. I actually have a girlfriend, so …” I winced apologetically while noticing Simon's raised brows and cocked head.
Her cheeks changed colors in an instant—from an unnatural pink to a deep, healthy blush. “Oh! I'm sorry. I, uh, I didn't realize.”
“It's fine,” I replied. “Have a good night, okay?”
“You too,” she said before hurrying away into the parking lot to nurse her humiliation.
Clearing my throat, I turned to face my friends and parents, ready to get home and into my own bed. But judging by their identical smirks and teasing eyes, they all had something else on their minds.
“Girlfriend, huh?” Dave prodded jokingly, coming to jab between my ribs with poking fingers.
“I only said it to let her down nicely,” I replied while brushing him away.
“And maybe 'cause you wish it were true, right?” Mitch said, waggling his brows.
“Oh, knock it off,” I muttered with a good-natured chuckle as I pushed my way through the group of people I cared about most to get my backpack from inside the venue.
All the while wondering,Whydidyou say it?
Why hadn't I just taken the woman up on her offer? That alone could've been all I needed to break the spell Lennon had on me. For all I knew, I could've buried myself between the legs of someone else and found that the inspiration wasn't solely in Lennon, but in anybody I slept with. It would've saddened me to know—like discovering that a giant bunny wasn’t really bouncing around, delivering eggs every Easter—but I would've been better for it.
I could've been free. So, why hadn't I just gone through with it?
“Because I don't want to,” I answered aloud without hesitation as I grabbed the backpack from the dingy, dimly lit dressing room.
It was as simple and depressing as that.
I didn't want to. Not with a random, beautiful blonde or with anybody else, and what that meant for my future, I didn't fucking know.
I guessed I'd have to figure it out, and maybe I could convince Lennon to come along for the ride with me. If not … well, I supposed that was just something I’d have to deal with, but not now.
Slinging the backpack over my shoulder, I trudged my way from the dressing room back to the exit door. My legs were aching, and my limp was impossible to fight after being on my feet most of the day.
I wish I’d had the foresight to keep the wheelchair handy, but it’s fine,I told myself while holding on to the refuge of removing the prosthetic once I was in the backseat of my parents' car.
The exhaustion was heavy now, stinging my eyes and slumping my shoulders. My hand gripped the door handle, about to push it open, when I was stopped in my tracks by a voice coming from behind me.
“Dylan?”
My name was spoken like a question, and the sound of her voice forced the air from my weighted lungs.
“Lennon,” I uttered on the last shred of breath before it was released into the stale room.
I turned to see her standing only feet away, Tarryn not far behind. The blonde looked over her friend's head, meeting my eyes with a wink and a quirk of her lips.
You're welcome, she mouthed silently, and with a deep inhale, I nodded my gratitude.
Dressed in her signature color of the deepest black, Lennon stepped toward me, picking at the nail polish on her fingernails and biting her rosy-pink bottom lip. In this moment, she was a far cry from that confident woman I'd met a year ago at the bar in a New York City penthouse. She was nervous, unsure, and—dare I say it—terrified, and of what, I could only begin to guess.
But none of that mattered.
Because she was here.
“I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier,” she said, brushing back a flyaway strand of long black hair. “I was waiting for Tarryn to pick me up, and then we got stuck in traffic, and—”
“It doesn't matter,” I interrupted, shrugging the backpack off and dropping it to the floor with all intentions of grabbing her and showing her just how much I'd missed her.
