AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do you want coffee, moro mou?” I asked him softly.
He looked down and rubbed his palms down his thighs. “I, uh, I think I’ll pass, Ruby. I need to get back and finish up some work for tomorrow.”
He stood and gathered the heavy platters from the centre of the table. Yiayia and Amber stood watching him warily.
I sent them both what I hoped was an encouraging smile and followed Vander into the kitchen. He turned and put his hands on my shoulders and set me aside, without speaking to me or meeting my eyes, to go back into the dining room.
My mouth fell open in shock.
This had gone phenomenally badly. I heard him thanking Yiayia for dinner and promising her he’d be back in a few days to see her again. That, at least, sounded promising.
I slipped on my shoes to walk Vander out and waited for him outside on the porch.
He came outside in a daze and jolted when he saw me. Anger flashed in his eyes.
“It was too early,” I whispered.
I knew it. We didn’t have the foundation for trouble. We never did, maybe we never would.
He stood in front of me, staring down at me with a mixture of grief, anger, and hurt. “I need to think.”
My blood ran cold. “You need to think,” I repeated flatly.
He raised his hand to brush my cheek but stopped short of touching me. He swallowed hard and looked away but not before I caught a glimpse of what suspiciously looked like tears.
“I’ll call you.”
Jogging down the steps, he loped across the yard to the street.
Turn around.
Crossing the road, he opened his car door and paused.
Please, turn around.
He shook his head, slipped into his car, and drove away.
I sat down hard on the top step.
What kind of fool was I? There was a saying, how did it go? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. What kind of fool came back for a third round?
He’ll ‘call me’? Oh, no. Nuh-uh.
This ends now.
I opened the front door, grabbed my purse and my keys, and yelled to Amber and Yiayia that I was going out. I heard Amber call my name, but I didn’t have it in me to have a long, drawn-out conversation.
So wrapped up in my head, I barely noticed the drive to Vander’s house, I parked behind his car and bounded up the steps to his front door.
His front door. Not mine. Not ever going to be mine.
I let go of Drew out of some misguided notion that Vander and I had something special, and I didn’t want to settle for less.
I scoffed.
I didn’t date because no one came close to making me feel what Vander did.
I made myself physically sick, both times, when he turned his back on me.
