Page 80 of Love In Translation

“Now you’re here, yes,” she told him. “But whyareyou here, Fletch?”

Fletch walked around her small apartment, looking at the black-and-white photographs hanging on her colorful walls. He picked up her hand-blown glass bowl, then the wooden statue of a couple kissing.

How strange, he seemed nervous. She’d never seen him so antsy before.

He walked over to the window, looked out onto her busy street, and turned to face her, his hands gripping the windowsill behind him with white fingers. Definitely uneasy. Why?

“Can I make you some coffee?” she asked, a little anxious herself. But then, anyone would be when the love of their life abruptly walked back in without any warning.

“Coffee is the last thing on my mind,” Fletch told her, and wiped his hands on his thighs. Fletch was definitely, and uncharacteristically, nervous.

She looked down at her hand, surprised to see she wasn’t shaking. It was enough that he was here. But why was he here?

Rheo sat on the edge of her cream-colored couch and gestured for Fletch to sit opposite her, on her scarlet-and-cream-striped chair. He declined, and she watched him pace the small area in front of the window. Fletch found it difficult to stay still at the best of times, he would have to keep moving to talk. Pity her sitting room was so small...

It was perfect for one person, but when you added a tall muscled man, the space seemed to contract.

“I’m sorry,” Fletch said, sounding terse and abrupt. Rheo didn’t take offense, she understood his levels of discomfort, and who liked apologizing?

“What are you sorry for, Fletch?”

“For the way I handled the situation in Gilmartin. For the way I handled you.”

Rheo thought about protesting. She wasn’t a woman who could be handled. But decided there were more important issues at stake than semantics.

“Okay,” she replied, waiting for him to explain. When he didn’t, she leaned forward and spread her hands. “I’m not sure a quick ‘I’m sorry’ was worth flying in from wherever you came from...”

“Kentucky.” Fletch raked his hand through his hair and she noticed his trembling fingers. It was the strangest thing—the more nervous he appeared, the calmer she became.

“Talk to me, Fletch,” she encouraged, fighting the urge to go to him and put him out of his misery. But there was a future to be fought for. If she went to him now, his words might go unsaid.

“I don’t know how we can make it work,” he stated, his voice low, but full of passion, “but I want to make it work. Ineedto make us work.”

And there it was, the words she so desperately wanted to hear.

“But I don’t know if it can,howit can, without one of us making massive compromises that’ll change the essence of who we are together. And if we change the essence of who we are, then we’ll change what we love about each other. And then we won’t love each other the same way we do now and, God, I don’tfucking know what to do. Ialwaysknow what to do.”

“Fletch?” When his eyes met hers, Rheo told him to breathe. “And another, in and out. Stop panicking.”

Fletch stared at her, offended. “I never panic, you can ask my crew. I’m the calmest, most level-headed bloke they know.”

Sure, except when he was talking about love and their future, and how they could be together.

“Fletch, come and sit,” she told him.

When he reluctantly sat on the chair, Rheo moved to perch on her wooden coffee table, her knees between his. She placed her hands on his thighs, trying not to smile when his grip on the arms of the chair tightened.

“What do you think will happen if you tell me you love me?” she asked. “Do you expect me to demand a ring? A house? A nine-to-five life?”

Panic flared in his eyes. Bingo. So, marriage and commitment didn’t scare him, but giving up his career did. She didn’t blame him; she didn’t want to give hers up either.

“I’d never ask you to stop exploring or stay at home for me, Fletch.”

It would be like trying to domesticate a wolf, and they’d both be miserable.

“But how can we be together if we’re always so far apart?” Fletch asked her. “It’s no basis to build a life on, Rheo.”

She tipped her head to the side. “Do you love me, Fletch?”

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