Page 94 of Love Not Qualified

He agreed with a bob of his head. “No, but that doesn’t mean the fault is entirely yours.”

Another stolen smile. I knew he was saying what any other person would’ve said, but the look in his eyes was different. If last night he was watching me with uncertainty, today he looked at me as if I was forever his.

The butterflies in my stomach started flying. “Thank you,” I breathed out, then touched my temples. “I could really use a hot shower.”

He nodded, then put the car in drive. “We’ll go back to my place.”

My eyes rounded. Again?

“It’s fine,” I said. “I can go home. I have to unpack anyway.”

Tristan drove out of the hospital parking lot and before going out on the streets, he threw me a glance. “I’m okay with that as long as you unpack at my house.”

I laughed. Was he out of his mind? I couldn’t go to his house again—though I couldn’t find any proper reason to refuse him.

“Tristan,” I pushed, tilting my head.

His palm landed on the inside of my thighs and he massaged the spot there. “Just for a couple of days. I don’t want you to be alone when you’re upset.”

My chest heaves. “Is that the only reason?”

I watched a bob pass his throat before he sped on the road. “No.”

He didn’t have to say anything because I knew he was thinking what I was. That we spent the last few days in a bubble that was slowly closing on us and we were both afraid of the moment it would pop.

The blood flooded warmer in my veins.

Was this the right thing to do? Or was it better to insist on taking me home?

But since my first instinct wasn't to convince him to take me home so I could be alone, it meant I needed his presence more than I would’ve liked to admit.

What did that mean for us?

I wanted to ask. I really wanted to. But it could’ve also been the needle to poke the bubble and ruin everything.

I found myself taking my phone out, ready to text Merielle and ask her about what I should do when I realized what I was doing.

No.

Merielle and I were distancing ourselves so she and David could regain what they lost. Yet that didn’t mean our friendship was done. I was giving her the space she needed, but at the same time making sure she was okay from further away.

With a sigh, I put my phone back and bit my tongue as I glanced out of the window.

It was my fault they broke up, but it wasn’t going to be my fault for them not getting back together.

THIRTY-FOUR

HAELYN

It was the third day I spent in Tristan’s apartment and while a voice inside me told me to get the fuck out of here, I couldn’t listen to it. Not when I woke up every morning with kisses on my neck and tight hugs and then breakfast in bed. Not when he carried me to the shower after we got lost in each other’s bodies. Not when he watched all the John Wick movies with me, even if I could tell he didn’t like them. Not when we went to work together every day and he came to my office, making sure I ate little by little as long as it meant I had food in my stomach. Not when he was so careful and didn’t insist on the matters I didn’t want to talk about. Not when he drove me to my mom every single day without a single complaint.

He watched me talk to her, desperate to get an answer even if I knew that was impossible. I just needed a sign—something to make things a bit easier.

Tristan was patient, and every time I cried he was there to offer me a shoulder.

The old me would’ve said everything was too good to be true between us and for once in my life, I wanted to enjoy what was given to me without creating thousands of scenarios of the way it could go wrong.

I chose to believe I deserved the good things that were happening to me.

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