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“Like what?”
“Impossible!”
“It’s better than boring, isn’t it?” I snap.
Orlie takes a step toward me and points to the center of the room. “Get back in the room or so help me god, I’ll –”
“What? Make me?!”
Apparently, that was enough to poke the bear. Orlie scoops me up over his shoulder and tosses me down on the couch. “Sitdown.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“Me?! You’ve been treating me like I’m some sort of villain since last night. You almost killed yourself out in the rain to get away from me!” he shouts back.
“Because you called me a bore!” I reply.
Orlie goes silent. The pattering of rain intensifies. The corner of his mouth perks up as if I’ve made some sort of a joke. “That’s why you’re upset with me?”
My jaw tightens. “Don’t smile. It’s not funny. It’s not some sort of joke.”
He shakes his head vehemently. “No, no, I’m not laughing. I’m just confused.”
I grip the edge of the sofa and look away.
“I just said it to get under your skin, not to –”
“People think I’m boring and they leave. It’s as simple as that.”
Rain. Pitter pattering. Me. Wanting to disappear into the couch.
“What do you mean, people think you’re boring?” Orlie moves to sit at the edge of the coffee table right across from me.
My heart thumps in my chest. “Just. I’m a nerd. You’ve said it yourself before. I hide in the background. Not the type to have all eyes on me. Because of that, I’ve grown to like my space. I like things my way. I don’t like to be pressured to be anything I’m not. And skinny dipping in a hot tub is most certainly something I’m not.”
“I would never want you to be something you’re not.”
I lift my eyes to his. There’s the Orlie I’ve grown to adore over the past week. The one that makes my insides melt together into a sticky mess of god knows what.
“A lot of people haven’t felt that way. A lot of men have…changed their minds about me. Decided I’m not worth keeping around because I’m…” I lift my hands and then let them drop. “I’m not enough the way I am, I guess. I’m a bore.”
“Kira, I just said that word because it was the first thing that came to mind, it wasn’t –”
“Words don’t just come out of thin air, Orlie. It’s nice to think they do, but they don’t.”
We are both quiet. Orlie reaches out and takes my hand. “Look, I’m sorry what I said hurt you. It was never my intention to make you think I really believed that with my core. This week…” He trails off and then decides against whatever he was thinking of saying. I silently beg for him to go on, but he doesn’t. “I know how hard it can be to forget the things an ex has done or said. Believe me.”
I’d be foolish to believe Orlie has never been hurt. But where is this coming from? Who hurt him? And what did she do? I wish we were closer so I could ask. In a way that I might even deserve to know.
Orlie touches my cheek. “Kira, come back to me. Please.”
The decision to despise Orlie Wynters from last night immediately fades away. I feel myself falling into his arms once again. And I don’t resist for a moment.
10
ORLIE
I drawKira into my arms and kiss the side of her head. A small patch of hair is still distantly damp from her early rain shower. Her body feels so small in my arms. I want to protect her. I want to find every man who ever hurt her and give them a piece of my mind.
