Page 31 of Ghosted By Texas

“Didn’t you?”

“No, Austin, I didn’t. I told you that your actions would have consequences and I didn’t know if I could handle them. The fact that your family was pressuring you about her, like I feared they would, and you hid it from me just proved that things could have never worked out. You cannot be fuck buddies with someone who expects everything from you. It doesn’t end well, especially in your situation where your families were intrinsically linked the way they were. Imagine if we had continued dating and you took me home to meet your family. How would I have been received? Would someone have invited Jordan to that event? I bet Victoria would have, since they’re close enough that your sister lied for her about seeing me on a date.”

“My dad would have loved you, and he was your champion all along, telling my mom and sisters that who I loved was my choice and that Jordan had never been a choice that I wanted to make in that way.” He chuckled at the memory.

“I thought my mom would give him the silent treatment forever over that until they had a talk about things privately and then she came around. It wasn’t like she ever pressured me to marry the girl, but she was always happy to see us at the house together or upset when Jordan complained that I was ignoring her. My dad must have said something to my mom about our conversation, because that’s when she stopped getting involved when Jordan came to her. It was too late by then because I lost you anyway.”

Silence hung heavily in the room after that as I sat contemplating everything. My appetite fled the moment Jordan’s name came up again, so eventually I stood and started closing up the containers and picking up our dishes. I didn’t bother to ask if Austin was done. Our dinner was over, he had seen all the ways it couldn’t work between us, so all that was left was for him to leave.

When I came back from carrying the dishes into the kitchen, Austin was sitting there staring at his phone. I could see that it was Jordan calling once again, but to my complete surprise, instead of answering it, he put his phone on silent and tucked it back into his pocket.

“You could have answered that,” I told him. He startled and turned to see me standing there between the living room and kitchen.

“I may have been an idiot when I was younger, but that doesn’t make me unteachable.”

“Well, that specific issue only applied when we were dating. We’re not, so feel free to pick up any and all calls. Actually, while this has been illuminating,” I moved to grab the bagged up leftover food and hand it to him, “I think it’s time for you to go. This is my last night off before I have to get back to work, so I’d like to curl up under my covers and read a good book to destress.”

“What if I want to do exactly that with you?”

I quirked an eyebrow up in question. “Did you bring your own reading material?” I asked sarcastically.

“Kind of,” he muttered and moved to stand directly in front of me. That dark spicy scent of his hit me immediately, stoking fires inside my body that had no business being lit. “I love to read you,” the infuriating man said as he drew closer.

“You have a bad habit of reading me wrong. This was me dismissing you for the night, so I could be alone with my book.”

“No, I don’t think that’s what you really want, and I know it’s not what I want.”

“Austin, what if I told you that it’s what I need?”

He stopped dead in his tracks and his features sobered from the lusty haze that he’d worn only a moment before.

“Then I’ll respect your needs for the night because I don’t want to do anything that will make you think I’m not completely serious about giving us another shot. I’ll be back though, Becs. I gave up last time when things looked bleak. That was my mistake, not going after you, and it’s the biggest regret of my life.”

He turned and left my apartment, making sure to twist the lock on his way out. The food still sat on the coffee table, so I managed to pack it away, throw the deadbolt on my door, and then I hid under my covers and cried for all the missed opportunities we’d lost out on because of his crazy relationship with his stupid life-long best friend. One day, he’d see that their friendship was something that had been tragically and irreparably warped. Until that day, I didn’t think there could really be anything healthy between us.

Then again, he hadn’t answered her phone call because he was with me. That was different than before. Maybe, it could work this time.

Going back to work, after a tiresome weekend, absolutely sucked. The relaxing with a good book that I meant to do the night before never happened because my recent conversations with Austin were stuck on replay in my head instead.

“Ms. Robinson,” Clara called out to me with her hand wiggling in the air as she twisted and squirmed in her seat. My assistant called out sick that day, so there wasn’t anyone to watch the class while I escorted her to the bathroom. Dammit. “I need to go,” she insisted.

“Everyone line up,” I huffed. Teaching the youngest kids at the school was usually the best part of my day, since they were so enthusiastic and unburdened by doubt. The problem was all the extra crap I had to deal with when it came to them, like bathroom breaks that took up the majority of a class period when I had to wrangle all the littles to the bathroom without the help of an assistant. Luckily, I only had fifteen children this class period, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.

“Ms. Robinson, I don’t know if I can make it that long,” Clara whined.

“It’ll be okay, Clara,” Tommy Ross assured her as his friend Brandon punched him in the arm. “What? You peed your pants last week and everyone laughed. Do you want that to happen to someone else?” He asked his friend. I loved that children their age attempted to whisper, but it never quite worked out for them.

The other children giggled as I opened my classroom door and almost ran face-to-chest into someone who had been standing outside.

“Sorry, I’ll be right with you. We have a slight emergency here,” I told the person as I backed him up out of the way and started to guide the line of children around him.

“Who is that?”

“Ms. Robinson, do we have a special guest?”

“Is he a painter?”

“He doesn’t even have any paint.”

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