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Red rimmed her eyes. “Have you been crying?” I asked, suddenly alarmed.
She waved my concern away. “That is neither here nor there. I saw you. Last night.”
I brightened and smiled through my confusion. “You came?”
She did not look at all happy. “I did.”
“Why didn’t you stay? I don’t understand. I would have loved to have seen you.” Wracking my brain, I could think of no reason for her to be upset. I scanned her face, watched as her eyes flashed with anger, and red splotches painted her cheeks.
“Really? I mean,” she waved a graceful hand, “I imagine if you’re used to two at a time, three would hardly be a crowd.” She gathered her purse into her lap and icily dismissed me. “This is a waste of time. I’m leaving.”
In that moment, all became clear, and fire glazed my vision. I stood abruptly, my chair legs screeching across the floor, the sudden noise staying her departure.
I leaned over, looked past the mask of composure on her face, and stared into her eyes. They were blank, her protective walls pulled high and wide.
“No, baby.” I shook my head. “I’m leaving.” Her eyes flickered with doubt in the face of my anger.
Thank, God.
I took my time scooping my helmet off the chair and gathering my wallet and keys off the table. Letting her stew a moment longer though it killed me, I dipped down to meet her wide eyes. “Those two women? My sisters. I would have been happy to introduce you had you made your presence known.”
Her mouth gaped open, and the color drained from her face. “Your sisters?” she squeaked.
“Yeah, baby. My sisters.” Anger over the warnings Junie and Willa delivered mixed with remorse for the lifestyle I’d indulged in, the lifestyle I’d worried would turn her away from me right from the beginning. “Despite what your friends have told you? I’m not a cheating asshole.”
“Lucky…” she whispered.
“I’m going.” I noted her flinch with both satisfaction and relief. I knocked sharply on the table. “And I’ll be back tomorrow. You’ve got twenty-four fucking hours to get your head on straight or I’ll straighten it for you. You feel me?”
Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but the door to the coffee shop slammed behind me before she was able to string two words together.
Chapter Eighteen - Punishment
Minty
I stared at the small box of cookies on the kitchen table in front of me, knowing I’d screwed up colossally.
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I tapped out the numbers, equal weight on each finger, two full rotations make it even. Sets of two, always.
As soon as I got back from the coffee shop, I phoned Amber and Ruby and filled them in. Ruby summarized the situation perfectly. “Shitfuckdamn. We screwed up.”
Amber offered to come over, but I needed to think things through on my own.
“I’m going to offer you a piece of advice a wise woman once offered me. Let that shit go. Whatever he did before you has no bearing on what you two have now.”
“It was so much easier to say than it is to do,” I admitted.
“Yes,” Amber replied immediately, and bestowed one further piece of advice before hanging up. “But the baggage of the past makes the present so much more painful than it needs to be. There is joy to be had, but we can’t grasp it if our hands are full of fear.”
I carried the box of cookies to my window seat and curled up on the padded bench. The late afternoon sun cast long shadows, and if I listened carefully, I could hear the sounds from the street below.
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You didn’t even give him a chance. You didn’t just jump, you leaped to the wrong conclusion, then treated him like shit.
Insulted him.
