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Bellamy leaned in close to her, “I once went to a gentlemen’s club with a president.”
“A sitting president?” she asked, eyes dancing.
To that, he made a locking motion at his lips.
“Tease.”
“How’s your eye actually feeling?” I asked when their conversation ebbed.
“It’s not great, but it could be worse,” she admitted, going about making her tea. “It probably looks worse than it feels.”
It didn’t look great, that was for sure.
Luckily, though, it wasn’t very swollen. Just blackened.
“How about I run out and grab us some breakfast?” Bellamy asked. “I imagine Lincoln and I will have greasy breakfast sandwiches. What should I get you? Grass clippings? With a side of cedar chip shavings and some coconut flakes?”
To that, she let out a choked laugh, eyes dancing. “While I do enjoy a good wheatgrass and some coconut flakes, if they have a fruit salad or some kind of parfait… those would be great. If not, a whole wheat bagel will work too.”
“Got it. I’ll be back in a bit.”
With that, he was gone.
“That wasn’t as bad as I had been anticipating,” she admitted when we were alone. “I expected Jules to jump down my throat.”
“That might still be coming,” I warned. “She might need some time to process it all.”
“That’s true. Did Quin yell at you before I woke up?”
“Nah. He’s been pretty rational about it. Pissed about the whole situation, but not really at us.”
“Good. I don’t usually sleep in, but I slept like the dead last night.”
“No surprise with how much shit you’ve been dealing with.”
“Yeah. Well, hopefully things will be over soon. Then things can, you know, go back to normal.”
“That’s the goal.”
“I’m relieved it’s over, honestly. That I don’t have to go back there. It felt like a black hole every day, sucking in all the happiness.”
Christ, that was sad. Especially for someone like her, to whom happiness seemed to radiate. She’d always seemed to have a bottomless supply of it. It bothered me more than I could have realized to know she didn’t always feel it for herself.
“Gem…”
“It’s okay. I’m okay,” she assured me, giving me a smile. And behind that smile was a spark, one I realized I hadn’t seen since that night in my room when I had turned her down even though every damn cell in my body had been begging me to lay her down on the bed. “Luckily, I am not someone who stews and holds onto negativity. Once all this is handled, I know I will bounce right back. Maybe find a job that allows me to do something I am passionate about.”
“And not get groped by your boss.”
“Yes, well, that goes unsaid. No one wants to be groped. I mean… at least not by their boss. Don’t give me that look,” she demanded, making me realize my lips had quirked up.
“Why not?”
“Because.”
“Because why?”
“Because I haven’t showered yet, and Bellamy is going to be back any minute,” she told me, making me take a deep, steadying breath, realizing that it had been held since we got interrupted, that I had maybe taken Bellamy’s words to heart, and started to doubt if Gemma would want me once she was safe, if the situation was making her feel attached to me, that it wasn’t a real, organic thing. I’d never been so happy to be wrong.
I got where Bell was coming from. I know that I didn’t exactly have a great track record with women. I treated them well when I had them, but I moved on so easily that, yeah, I could totally see his concern about my growing feelings for Gemma being just as superficial.
They weren’t, though.
This was different.
She was different.
Maybe because I knew her, because I had known her for a long time, because I didn’t jump into anything before I even knew who she was.
We’d even played house for a week for fuck’s sake. It wasn’t like I was suddenly going to find out she chewed with her mouth open or snapped her gum or left crap everywhere or was the type to throw fits or be so needy it was impossible to function.
It was the first time I thought that maybe, possibly, this could be something. Something lasting.
While I had been hopeful with each woman I had brought into my life, I had never been confident in them, in a possible future.
With Gemma, with realizing my house felt oddly empty without her, with the way I couldn’t stop thinking about her, yeah, I felt sure enough to say I could see something with her, something lasting.
“Still got a couple minutes,” I suggested, watching as her eyes burned. “Get over here.”
As if the words summoned her, her feet immediately started moving toward me as her breathing went quick and shallow, as a blush bloomed across her chest, up her neck. I couldn’t wait to find out if she flushed all over when you touched her, if she always came as hard as she had the night before.
