Page 32 of Touch Me (Complete Collection)

She shook her head, walking toward the couch in the center of her small apartment. Plopping herself onto it, she waited until he sat and then breathed deeply. “It’s not about that. I mean it is…but it was just a constant barrage of drama. I just want to rest…I want peace. I don’t want to feel like an over-emotional yoyo all the freaking time!”

“What are you talking about, sweetheart?”

She stared straight into his eyes. “I found your credit card statement and…saw the ten day stay at The Ritz.”

His face went white and his lips parted. “You're misunderstanding that. I only lied to you because you were on the verge of leaving my place, because we kissed…and Celia barged in…and then I…I didn’t have a choice so I moved out of the damn apartment so you didn’t have to go anywhere.”

“See? The drama! God! It’s like we’re constantly just…” She sighed. “I told you I’m not ready for anything serious. I wasn’t even willing to have a relationship. But it happened and…I don’t like the person that I've become!”

“I like the person that you’ve become.”

“I don’t, Cooper. I’m always worried over something or the other. You know what I did when I found the statement? I called your architect for Celia’s number- ”

“What?” He shook his head in disbelief. “Celia had nothing to do with that!”

“I know. But I went all Nancy Drew. Heartbroken Nancy Drew, and I don’t want to feel that pathetically vulnerable again.”

“What did Celia say?” He wondered if she had lied to cause a rift between him and Jenny.

“She told me the truth. She was really sweet.”

“Is that why you moved into her apartment building? Are you two buddies now?”

She chuckled. “No. I just liked her apartment when I came to talk to her.”

“Okay.” He paused staring at the ground. “So you want us to…date? Or what? Take it slow?”

Jenny swallowed. “I want a break.”

“Ahan!” He turned his face away and shifted on the couch, linking his fingers together, lost in thought.

“Cooper…you know I love you.”

“That’s why you need break!” he scoffed

She grabbed his arm as he stood up, but he didn’t let her clutch him. “I was so…whiny, needy, dependent. While you were in Sydney this time, I moped around all day. I’m becoming pathetic.”

He looked down at her, and shook his head. “You were in love with me. And you missed me. It was normal. Why do you have to psychoanalyze everything?”

She stayed silent, and scratched the cushion cover lazily. He stared down at her, before walking out of her apartment. Her heart twisted painfully in her ribs, and she clenched her eyes shut to squelch the ache. Remorse made its presence known. She pulled in the tears that brimmed behind her eyelids. Dreary fogs engulfed her, and she already felt the missing link to her happiness. Cooper.

**

Jenny gathered the files off her office desk and stuffed them inside her laptop sleeve. Gracie – her colleague and new friend – shuffled past.

“Are you heading back already?” Gracie asked.

“Yup.”

“Do you want to go out for a drink tonight?” She peeked at Jenny hesitantly.

Jenny pursed her lips. It had been two months since she had moved into her own apartment. During that time, a lot of stuff had changed. She had made two new good friends. The first one was Gracie, and the other was the most ridiculous prospect of all – Celia Banks.

Gracie knew the Cooper Farrell episode, and surprisingly, she hadn’t sympathized with Jenny – at all. Her view of Cooper Farrell bordered on adoration and worship, and she always insisted that Cooper was a catch, and that Jenny had been a fool to let him go.

“I don’t feel like it tonight,” Jenny mumbled. “You carry on without me. I think I’ll stay in and watch a movie.”

“Mhmm. Don’t you think you should do something else? Besides staying home and feeding the cats?”

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