Page 72 of Christmas Candy

I shook my head. There was no one who could answer that question. “Sometimes things just don’t work.”

“But you two work?” She turned away again.

I slid down in bed next to her, but didn’t snug too close unless she went into blowup mode again. “I think we do. I think I want to give it more time. I think I want to try to be with him.” I continued stroking her hair. “But I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Too late.” Another sniffle.

“I know.”

We lay in silence until she dozed off and started snoring lightly. I rose and covered her with her blanket before slipping into my own bed. It would blow over. I just had to wait it out. This wasn’t our first blowup, but it certainly was our biggest.

It was Saturday, so we didn’t have to worry about missing class. After our nap, we spent the rest of the day together, awkward at first, and then sort of making up as we went along. Me buying her dinner at her favorite restaurant went a long way to help. Her getting picked up at the bar by a Scottish grad student helped, too.

I purposefully ignored my phone. I wanted to give Claudia more time to heal, to forgive me, before I got in touch with Eamon again. A week, maybe. By that time, maybe she would have moved onto another guy. Even so, I longed to talk to him, to see him. When I closed my eyes, I saw the intense look on his face he’d had when he’d been inside me. Though I was repairing my relationship with Claudia, all I could think of was the man who’d torn us apart.

Eamon

“Pull yourself together, mate.” Noel opened the blinds in our dorm room and I blinked against the sun’s harsh glare.

It was Wednesday. I’d skipped class, just like I’d done the two days before.

“Coach is going to ream your ass at practice.” Noel’s scolding had grown in intensity every day.

“I’m not going to practice.” I drew my blanket over my head.

He ripped it off and tossed it across the room. “Get up. Rise and shine. You need a goddamn shower and a shave. Shake it off. She’ll come back. And if she doesn’t, her loss… Though, that’s not true. I got a pretty good look at her that morning and damn. I would definitely do some filthy things to her sweet snatch.” He whistled.

I was out of bed in a second, my hand wrapped around his throat. “Don’t you fucking talk about her like that!”

“Better,” he choked out.

I loosened my grip. What was I doing? Noel was my friend.

He grinned; his plan of taking the piss to get me moving clearly working.

“You’re halfway to the shower. Keep on going.” He made a show of pinching his nose.

“I don’t stink.”

“Sure. Sure. Tell it to the soap bar.” He waved me into the bathroom. I dug my phone out of my shorts pocket. No messages, despite the fact I’d sent her countless texts and voicemails. The only thing that kept me from going to her dorm was Claudia. I didn’t want to ruin her relationship with Laurel any more than I already had.

“Brush it off, mate. You can’t just shut down because she’s gone.”

I slammed the bathroom door, closing off Noel’s “voice of reason” routine.

I swiped across my phone. One more message. One more time.

Every morning when I wake up and realize you don’t want me, my heart breaks all over again. ~E

I tossed my phone onto the counter and stepped into the shower.

Laurel

That text. I was sitting in my Wednesday morning Greek class, and I snuck a look at my phone. I couldn’t take it any more. I’d stayed away from him for Claudia’s sake. But now that she was already semi-serious with the Scot she’d picked up a few nights before, I refused to assuage her hurt feelings. Not after that text.

I closed my laptop and packed my backpack. The professor continued her lecture, though she raised an eyebrow at me. I never missed class. I shook my head, trying to assure her it wasn’t an emergency. But it was.

I had to get to him. I hadn’t slept well in days. I barely ate. He took up all my mental space, but I tried to stay strong for Claudia. Now, I didn’t care if she never spoke to me again. I had to be with Eamon. I’d been a fool for waiting as long as I had.

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