AllFreeNovel
Share Us
TWENTY-TWO
Brooklyn
Me
I can’t stop thinking about this morning. I know when I left your room, things were okay. But I can’t shake the feeling that they’re not. I don’t expect you to get over this immediately—that’s not what I mean. I know what I did, and I know the heaviness of it.
I just want you to know how sorry I am.
And now, I worry that you’ll never believe anything I say ever again.
Macon
I’m not the kind of dude who holds grudges. I accepted your apology, Brooklyn. I can’t fix the past. Neither of us can. All we can do is move on.
Me
That’s all I want, but with your trust.
Macon
Do I believe you’ll lie to me again? No, I don’t.
Me
I should feel relieved to hear that … but …
My cell suddenly started ringing, Macon’s name filling the screen.
I took a deep breath and connected the call, holding my phone against my face. “Hello?”
“Would hearing my voice help you believe it?”
As I sat in front of my laptop, trying to finish the paper I’d started an hour ago, I leaned back in my chair. I’d only written a few paragraphs. I’d just been staring at the blinking cursor, thinking nonstop about my morning run-in with him. How, like an idiot, I’d been on the phone with my mom, talking about their upcoming flight and my graduation plans, so focused on our conversation that I didn’t hear the water running in Macon’s bathroom or even notice the light coming from under the door. I had just assumed he wasn’t back yet.
When I’d walked in on him in the shower, I hadn’t known how my face looked, but panic had run through me, and so had a wave of anxiety and fear and regret, slamming into me so hard that I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. I could just stare at him and think, over and over,Oh God, what have I done.
“Yes, hearing your voice definitely helps,” I whispered. “I know I’m coming across as extremely needy. I just …”
“Feel like shit about everything.”
I set my hand on my chest while I attempted to fill it again, the tightness so overwhelming that I had to push my palm against it. “Yep, that.”
“Listen to me. You explained yourself. You took responsibility. You told me how sorry you were. Just because I wish you had handled things differently—and I hate that it went as far as you having to lie on your résumé—it doesn’t mean I’m going to dwell on the past.”
There was movement in the background, the sound of construction, which told me he’d returned to the Spade Hotel. I wondered if he’d even taken a nap in the hours since I’d spoken to him.
“I had a long conversation with Jo this afternoon. She told me about your interview and how you came clean and how badly you felt about the whole thing. Hearing another person’s perspective and talking it through helped a lot, especially since she could relate after going through something similar with Jenner.”
I loved that she had been there for him, and even though he hadn’t confirmed this, it sounded like Jo had had my back. That she’d used her situation with Jenner to make Macon see where I was coming from—not accepting my motive, but understanding why I had one.
I really owed her that glass of wine.
Shit, I owed her a case.
“I’m really happy you spoke to her,” I said. “I still wish I hadn’t told her before you—that was so wrong of me—but hearing her take on things certainly helped me too.”
A few seconds of silence passed before he said, “When I think about my future, Brooklyn, it’s you. That’s what I want to focus on.”
