Page 70 of Falling Together

As soon as Blair opened her eyes more fully, she became aware of her pounding headache once again. She wiped at her nose with her arm, because she really had no other option since her snot was currently running out of her nose like a waterfall. “I’m okay.”

Erin stared at her and gave her a sympathetic smile. “Are you sure about that?”

She looked down at Blair’s arm, which now had a line of snot across it.Awesome. So much for impressing her.

“Sorry. Not my finest moment. I must look like such a mess right now.”

“Kind of.” Erin’s smile became a smirk. “But it’s okay, because you’re literally the definition of ahotmess.”

“So, you think I’m hot, hmm?” Blair leaned forward in the hope of kissing Erin, but she had to turn away at the last second when she broke into yet another coughing fit.Man, I really wish I was still asleep. This is a nightmare.

“You’re very hot.” Erin brought her hand up to Blair’s forehead. “In more ways than one, unfortunately. God, I feel so bad that I got you sick.”

“If it makes you feel better, we can blame Nolan.” Blair laughed, but that caused her to cough again and made her head and throat hurt even more.Just kill me now.

“I think that makes the most sense. I swear I used to never get sick and then I had him, andboom, sick all of the time. Kids are germ monsters.”

“Speaking of which, how did you finally get Nolan out of the house this morning?”

“Honestly?” Erin visibly cringed. “I might have promised to take him to McDonald’s after daycare.”

“Hmm, really?” Blair tapped on her chin as if she was thinking. “I feel like I remember a certain someone lecturingmeabout taking him to McDonald’s when I first started babysitting. I believe you told me I showed him I was weak.”

“Ah, but here’s the difference between us. I have already established my dominance, so he knows who’s in charge, even if I give in now and then.”

“Is that so?” This fun, playful banter between them was actually the perfect medicine for Blair. It almost had her forgetting about how shitty she was feeling.Almost.

Erin laughed and playfully pushed Blair’s shoulder. “Whatever. I can’t help it that I’m a softie.”

“I think I might be a softie too. Is that going to be a problem if you ever let me cross over into the more-than-friends territory?”

As soon as the words left Blair’s mouth, she realized she shouldn’t have crossed that line. Just the mention of being more than friends had Erin tensing up beside her. Plus, what was meant to be a joke might have been taken a little too seriously by Erin.

“I… well…” Erin opened and closed her mouth as though she kept changing her mind about what she wanted to say. “I don’t know. It could be, I guess. I’m honestly not even sure how Bianca parented because she barely ever did it.”

“When was the last time you talked to Bianca?” Blair normally wouldn’t push the subject, but she had already made things awkward, so she figured why not.

Erin was definitely surprised by Blair’s question, but in her defense, she recovered very quickly. “Aside from legal things, the last time wereally talkedwas the day she left.”

Blair had to stop her eyes from popping out of her head, because that shocked her. How could you spend ten years with someone and not have a longer fallout? “Did you talk about the possibility of divorce before she ended up leaving?”

Erin sighed and shut her laptop, making Blair feel guilty about pushing the subject when she was nice enough to take care of her. “No, we didn’t. There were definite signs that things weren’t good between us, but the problem was that they also weren’tbad.Maybe that’s my fault since I refused to fight with her. Every time she left the house to do her own thing, I just let her. I was petrified that if I brought anything up and pissed her off, she would leave me. I guess that backfired since she left anyway, huh?”

“Shit.” Blair reached out and took Erin’s hand. She wasn’t sure she should ask the question that just popped into her head, but Blair wanted to put the idea out there in case it could help Erin. “Have you ever thought about talking to her about exactly what went wrong? I feel like you have so many questions. Maybe it would be good for you to get some answers. You know, for closure?”

Erin stared straight ahead for a long time, and the expression on her face gave nothing away. She chewed on her bottom lip as if there were words she was trying to hold inside.

Blair squeezed Erin’s hand. “Just say it.”

Erin shook her head. “I don’t know what to say.”

Blair didn’t believe that one bit. “There has to be something youwantto say. I think you’re just not saying it because you feel like you shouldn’t.”

“Honestly, my gut reaction was to make some rude remark like ‘What are you? My therapist?’ but what good would that have done?”

Blair shrugged. “It would’ve shown me you were pissed at my question. And you know what? I would’ve gotten pissed right back, because I was just trying to help.” Blair tried to keep the bite out of her tone, but the truth was shewasa little annoyed. She wasn’t sure if she felt more annoyed that Erin was blowing her off when she was trying to help or that she was avoiding being honest with her.

“See! That’s why I bite my tongue.”

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