Page 46 of All Her Broken Pieces

She can try to keep me out, but I’m slowly chipping away at her walls. If she’s never been shown what a healthy relationship looks like, it’ll take longer to get through to her, but I’m undeterred.

After Bridget returned from her walk, I gave her some space, running errands to pick up ingredients for this evening’s meal.

We are now sitting in the living room while the TV plays in the background after we ate and I cleaned up the kitchen. I sensed she needed some time to herself today, so I’ve backed off my nursing efforts and have been letting her try to get around on her own. The less she needs my help, the more panic claws my throat at the thought of my time ending here. I hope I’ve done enough to convince her to keep seeing me, only nothing is easy with Bridget. But anything easy isn’t worth having, is it? I like her challenge. I love it.

She shifts in place on the loveseat, brushing a lock of her gorgeous chestnut hair behind her ear. She’s wearing it in loose curls today. It’s the first time she’s styled her hair since her surgery, and I take it as a good sign that she’s starting to feel more like herself again.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’m bored. There’s nothing to watch on here. I feel like I’m going crazy being so cooped up.”

“We can play truth or dare?”

“We’re not playing truth or dare.”

“Scared you’ll lose?”

She sighs loudly. “Fine. Who starts?”

“Hold up, we need to go over the rules first.”

“It’s truth or dare, you pick one and do it. What do we need to go over?”

“Sure, that’s the basic version. For every dare you successfully complete, you get one point. For every truth you tell, you get two points. First to ten points wins.”

“Why aren’t dares worth more?”

“Because sharing truths seems to be more difficult for you.”

“What if there’s a dare I can’t complete?”

“Then you have to tell a truth. You get one pass that you can use on a truth with no consequences. Everything else you must answer or complete a dare instead.”

“What do I get if I win?”

“What do you want?” I cringe internally because I’m worried that her answer will involve me leaving or pushing me away.

“If I win, you have to go back to sleeping at your place.”

There it is. She’s sitting on the loveseat across from me, a stern look on her face, letting me know that she means business. “Fine. If I win, you let me stay for the whole six weeks,” I counter.

She crosses her arms in challenge, an invisible wall already going up. “Truth or dare.”

“Truth.”

“Why are you here?”

“Are you seriously wasting your truth on that question?” I ask incredulously. How does she not know the answer to that by now?

“Scared?”

“Not in the slightest. I’m an open book when it comes to you, but I’m hurt you even had to ask that. I’m here because I like you.”

“You just like helping people, and I’m your latest project.”

This is new. Deflecting with humor is easy to handle, but this hurt is harder to hurdle. “Helping is in my nature. It gives me a sense of purpose. I may not be good at a lot of things, but I can be helpful. With my sisters, my parents.”

“Your Nonna,” she adds hesitantly.

“Yeah. I needed to help her, to feel like I was doing everything in my power to repay her for everything she’d given me. But it wasn’t enough. When she passed a little over a year ago, it broke me. That’s why Alyx dragged me out the night we met. He was tired of me bumming him out.”

---