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“Not with a lot of grace, as this conversation proves.”
All right, enough.
I slid off my stool, saying, “Thank you for dinner, it was delicious. I’d help you clean up, but I’m sure you have someone to deal with those tasks for you, so I’ll just go.”
I was moving to my bag, but he got in my way.
“We’re talking this through,” he declared.
“No, I’m leaving,” I retorted.
“You can’t run away every time we have a disagreement.”
“I can every time you act like a dick.”
“So now you’re threatening me?”
“Not at all, because there’s only so many times I’ll let you be a dick to me.”
“That’s a definite threat, babe.”
“Take it as you like,babe. Now please, get out of my way.”
He didn’t get out of my way.
I didn’t ask him again nor did I do anything gauche like try to dodge him to get to my luggage.
I didn’t do either of these because I was trying to deal with all I was feeling.
I wasn’t just mad, I was hurt.
And I was scared, because that hurthurt.
I didn’t want to walk away.
But I didn’t think I’d done what he said I’d done. I didn’t like the feelings that came up when we fought. And I didn’t need this after having an extremely difficult night the night before. But I did need him to learn to trust me and open up to me.
Nugget of news: a red flag was waving about Hale, and all of a sudden, I realized two things. One, it had been waving all along, and I hadn’t noticed it. And two, I was more into him than I was admitting, because finally seeing it gutted me.
I broke eye contact, because, dammit, I was going to cry again.
What was happening to me?
“Baby,” he whispered.
He’d seen my emotion and he didn’t like it.
AndGod, why was he so awesome even when he was being a dick?
I didn’t move as he got close and cupped my jaw in his hands, but he didn’t make me look at him as he said, “Please, don’t leave.”
And sweet. He could be sweetandawesome after being a dick.
Ugh.
I beat back the tears and lifted my gaze to his.
He immediately touched his lips to mine.
