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She takes a long, deep breath, and sits down on the other sofa, still focused on me. “Is that all?”
She’s an interesting kind of honest today. I cock my head. “Does it matter? I made you a promise I don’t intend to break.”
She looks down at her hands which are clasped tightly in front of her. I take a deep breath. It shakes a little on the uptake, but not enough for her to notice.
Wow, ok, newsflash: Long Island Sophie still lives on. I thought she was over me. She made it seem like my disinterest in a committed relationship had put an end to her feelings, but that’s clearly not the case. She wants me. She still wants me. My stomach does a somersault.
Does she want me to break my promise? Because I’ll break my promise right here, right now on this sofa if she asks me to. But if she really does want something simple with no strings attached, she’ll have to admit that to me herself. I’m not going to drag it out of her.
“Look,” I sit forward, taking my hat off and placing it on the pedestal. “When this is all said and done and my promise no longer applies, maybe we can give Long Island a second chance.”
That’s months away. I hate the thought of waiting that long if she really wants it now, but maybe she’ll convince me to bend the rules a bit.
She looks up and furrows her brow. “Long Island? You mean like…how it almost was?”
A smirk escapes. “Yes, it’s clear that you still want that.”
Her eyebrows pull together even more. “What? No, I don’t want that, Kai. Don’t present yourself to me like some sort of prize to be won.”
It’s my turn to look confused. A prize? I thought she wanted me? Something isn’t adding up.
“I want something real,” she says quietly.
“Sex is real,” I reply simply. Sex is very real in its own way.
She stares daggers at me. “Why are you so against anything more?”
Ah, I should have known. It was too good to be true. She’s still hung up on the idea of a committed relationship. With me? Yeah right. She’s barking up the wrong tree. I was delusional to think she shifted her perspective so easily.
I sigh and run my hand through my hair. “I told you exactly why.”
“But…you seriously can’t write off relationships for the rest of your life,” she pleads. “You’re better than that. Even…ugh, even Nick is looking for something real.”
I feel the nerve endings within me catch fire with frustration. I’ve fooled myself into thinking she’s changed, but she’s just the same. “Oh, come on, Sophie. The story about his great-grandparents? It’s a lie he uses to get into the pants of women like you.”
She stares at me in shock. “What? No, he told me they were in love. It was a beautiful story.”
I shake my head, almost laughing this time. “It was a lie. He told me himself. He made it up.”
She glares at the floor. It’s amazing how well his story has worked on her. She’s his perfect target.
She clears her throat. “Well, he didn’t get into my…um, well…you know.”
Thank God.
“No.” I take a breath. “But up until his drunken escapades at the party, he did have you going for a minute there, didn’t he?”
Sophie lifts her eyes to mine again, and I see the shocked enlightenment there. The rainbows and roses are crashing down around her.
“See,” I say gently. “You can’t trust anyone.”
“I trust you.” The words come out of her mouth so quickly I barely have time to register them.
I’m truly angry now. She actually had me considering breaking my promise to her. She’s sitting there beginning to trust me, to probably develop feelings for me, because inside that naïve head of hers, she thinks I might change my mind about it all; that I might consider something more. She’s telling herself lies.
I stare at her for a long moment, trying to figure out how to respond. She really is confused, and I need to set her straight. “No. You don’t trust me,” I reply firmly. “You trust the idea of me that you’ve cooked up in your own head. The me that you think is secretly harboring the desire for a committed relationship. The me who might just crack and give in if you push him far enough. But that me is just a figment of your imagination. He doesn’t exist.” I pause, looking at her closely.
“But, maybe you…” she begins.
