Page 114 of Love Not Qualified

“I’ll come back tomorrow,” I said with a smile, squeezing my mother’s hand in mine at the same time she did. “Love you.” I kissed the top of her head.

“Goodbye, D,” Merielle said.

We both walked out of the hospital room and I slowly closed the door behind us. My mother was doing fine—not great, but a lot better than before. And that was enough to run some kind of fuel through me.

The guilt was still there and it was something I had to learn to live with. If that was the price I had to pay for her recovery, I had no problem doing so. I carried a lot of weight on my shoulders since I was young, this wasn’t something that was going to take away the happiness at the improvement in my mother’s state.

She was going to be better sooner or later even with the decision I took to disconnect her from the machines. So, I was grateful.

“Are you seriously not going to tell me anything about your date with Tristan?” Merielle pushed as soon as we were out. She slumped on a bench and I shot her a look.

I knew she wanted to talk about it, but it was freezing cold outside and after a rainy day the last thing I wanted was to besitting on a cold bench.

“What?” She raised her brows.

I shook my head. “I still don’t understand how you ending up working with him behind my back. I thought you hated him.”

She looked around, biting her bottom lip as she dragged her jacket tighter over her body. The wind was sneaking its way under our clothes.

“Well… he seemed sincere,” she lied, and when she saw the judging stare I had, she cleared her throat. “Okay. Yes. He offered a seven-day trip to Tenerife for me and David and I thought it’d be good for us once he recovers.” She got up to her feet. “And before you say anything, that’s not why I said yes.”

I placed a foot in front of the other, crossing my arms over my chest. “It’s not?”

“No.” She shook her head. “He told me he was going to buy the stupid dating app and I thought it was so so so—” Her eyes started dreaming, zooming out into a land of love.

“He did what?” My eyes almost popped out of my head.

She squinted. “Wait. I thought you knew.”

“What the heck, Merielle,” I started. “How could you let him spend that kind of money for one night when you knew I had no intention of going back to him?”

Merielle sighed. “It was romantic, Hae. Admit it.” She put her hands on her chest.

“I would’ve never accepted it if I knew it was him. I’m not ready to step on my pride just because he’s feeling sorry. Did we have a great night? Sure. Did I want to kiss the shit out of him? Yes. But did I change my mind once I got home and everything sunk in? Definitely,” I explained.

My best friend opened her mouth to talk, but no words made it out. I knew she wanted to help and it did since I got out of the house after two weeks, but that doesn’t mean I’ll forgive him.

“Thank you for waking me up, but it wasn’t fair for him to spend that kind of money when I’m not ready to forgive him.”

She nodded, threaded her arm through mine and gave me a soft smile. “Consider that as his punishment for what he did to you.”

I was just aboutto call Tristan when a powerful and inpatient knock sounded on my door. We haven’t spoken since the last time we saw each other—at the mysterious date—and while I would’ve liked to keep it that way, he had to know.

With my phone in my hand, I rushed to my door and flew it open. I was expecting to see one of my neighbors and I didn’t think for a minute that Tristan could be the person standing on the other side.

He was dressed in his jogging clothes, sweat gliding on his forehead as he fought to regain his breath.

Did he run all the way here? How the hell did he get my address?

Merielle.

I really needed to have a serious conversation with her about trying to hook me up with my ex-boss after I carefully explained I wasn’t ready to forgive him.

My eyes swept down on their own accord on the tight jacket showing off his muscles.

No. Nope. Don’t go there.

“Hi,” I said reluctantly.

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