Page 67 of Finally Loved

“Yes.”

“So, do you think you could offer all of those things to your partner?”

Neve stared at her. The tears burned in her eyes again. It was all the things she wanted in a relationship. All the things she’d wanted to share with someone else. It was a whole list ofthings she could give to a partner—that shewantedto give to a partner—and yet, she’d spent so long thinking it wasn’t enough, like they all meant nothing because she didn’t want sex too. But it was a whole relationship. She wanted a whole relationship—the good, the bad, the ugly, the wonderful. She wanted that with someone, and maybe it was enough, maybe it could be—not for everyone, perhaps, but maybe it could be a whole list of things she had to offer and maybe that would be enough for someone.

“Yes,” she said, her voice hoarse. “Yes, I think I could offer all those things to a partner.”

Chapter 20

Alba laughed as she made it to one of the empty picnic benches outside her office and straddled the bench, placing her lunch on the table beside her.

“Why are you laughing?” Zainab demanded from down the phone.

“Oh, I’m sure you can figure that out,” Alba said, still laughing.

“I call you with an emergency and this is how you respond?”

“This hardly constitutes an emergency now, does it?” She twisted towards her food and began spearing some of it onto her fork.

“What else would you call it?”

“Um, I don’t know, maybe what it is? A date.”

“It is not a date.”

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t know. That’s why you’re supposed to be helping me,” Zainab whined.

Alba stifled another laugh. “Look, someone asked you out for dinner, just the two of you, and you said yes. What else would you call that? What would you call that if it happened to someone else?”

Zainab hesitated. “A date. Probably.”

“Right. So, what do you think it might be if it happens to you?”

“Something else?”

“Zainab.”

“It can’t be a date. I’ve been annoyed with them since they started.”

Alba paused to slowly chew her food, allowing the thought to sit with Zainab for a moment.

“Alba?”

“Zainab. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe the reason you’ve been so annoyed with them is because you’re actually into them?”

“No.”

Alba’s eyebrows shot up her forehead. “Oh, has it not? Are we just ignoring that this is kind of how you do things?”

“It is not,” Zainab replied petulantly. She was always petulant when she was like this.

“Do you want me to start naming names?”

“No,” she said hurriedly. “I do not.”

“So, you admit you know this is a pattern?”

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