Page 135 of Family Bonds- Garrett & Justine

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CLEAR THE AIR

“What happened to your hand?” Justine asked Garrett on Monday, an hour before her shift was going to end. He was probably done for the day too.

She was still feeling a bit raw about what happened on Saturday, but she had to work yesterday and it was for the best that they had that space to figure things out.

She fully expected to see him today, but when he didn’t come this morning, she realized she’d have to make that first move.

Maybe she thought he’d make it easier on her by coming here first. He did, but it took all day for it to happen too.

“I broke my pinky,” he said.

He had a brace on the last finger of his right hand.

She moved quickly from behind the counter and went out to see him and pulled him to the side.

“How?” she asked quietly.

“It’s not the time to talk about it,” he said.

She wondered if he did something stupid after she left. Then she was upset he didn’t tell her he got hurt.

“Can we talk after work then?” she asked. “I’ve only got an hour left.”

“I stopped to see if we could,” he said. “I don’t like the distance and I wanted to finish this on Saturday.”

“But I didn’t give you a chance,” she said, nodding her head.

“No,” he said. “I’m not going to let you run any longer. Or avoid this. I never thought I was one to avoid things and I’m wrong. I am. We need to just clear the air if you’re willing to hear me out.”

She didn’t want to cry at work. “I am,” she said. “I’m sorry I left, but I was overwhelmed.”

“I knew that. I wasn’t happy, but I let you go. Maybe that is part of my problem. I let you make all the decisions because I felt it was best for you.”

“But not for you,” she said. “And I thought of that. I don’t want to get into it now. I’ll start to cry. Please, I’ll be at your house when I get out.”

He leaned in and gave her a light kiss on the lips and she let him because she needed it more than she realized.

They’d be able to work it out. She knew that.

Not once did she think this was the end of their relationship, and when she realized that yesterday, she knew how much she loved him.

How much she couldn’t lose him in her life.

Her decision was made at that point. It was made for her without her even knowing.

They just needed to get past this and back to where they’d been before Saturday.

She finished up work, the last hour dragging by with her looking at her watch every five minutes.

Rather than go home and change, she drove right to Garrett’s. She didn’t want to wait.

She wasn’t going to avoid this.

She wasn’t going to run.

They both had this problem in their lives and she was glad that he could see it was a flaw of his too.

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