Page 55 of The Art of Falling in Love with Your Enemy
“Don’t do that with your faces, you guys. I’m fine. I’m not as angry as I was, so rest assured I won’t be pulling out my flame thrower and tracking down Zac tonight.”
“Thank goodness, because I borrowed your flamethrower and haven’t given it back yet.” Riley’s attempt to make me smile works, but just barely. “If you don’t want to come with us, can we bring you food back?”
Shaking my head again, I use my chin to point to the fridge. “I’m stocked up. But thank you. You two—especially you, Riley—should think about going home.”
Riley had come over and basically moved in after I told her what happened a few days ago. I think she broke a land-speed record driving to my place cause she lives about ten minutes away and I swear she was here in less than two.
“I’m happy to stay another night, too. I’m a firm believer that no one should be alone in a time of crisis.” She says this to Amelia, but we all know she’s talking about me.
“Or you could be trying to avoid being at your parents now that you’ve told them you’re quitting…that couldn’t be it, right?” Amelia queries, tossing a wink my way.
“Shh. Let’s not talk about that and the fact they want me to move out next month.” Riley rolls her eyes. “I knew this would happen.”
“You’re being independent. So what, you don’t want to go into the family business.” I throw an arm around Riley’s shoulders. “It will all work out.”
“We’ll see.” Riley grabs her purse and digs through it, finding her keys. She looks at me before rocking her eyes to the phone, which she’s put back on the coffee table. “You and Zac…will it all work out?”
Sighing, I sit down in my favorite chair and stare out the front window. Do I want things to work out for me and Zac? Oddly enough, yes. If someone would have told me even two weeks ago that I would have that thought, I would have called them a liar. Then slapped them for good measure.
“He lays out why he took the bet in the last email he sent you.” Amelia stands by the front door with her arms crossed. “I’m the one out of all of us who should be the most jaded, since I’m the one who’s getting separated, but even I can read between those lines.”
Besides assaulting my phone with a bevy of text messages asking for me to forgive him, Zac had also sent me two emails. One was nothing but “I’m sorry” and other apologies. I give him credit, though: he did say he was sorry in French, Italian, and Spanish as well in those emails so…points to you, Zac.
The second email was longer, and in this one he repeated what he had told me when I last saw him in person. That one does explain his reasons why he did what he did, but I’m not ashamed to say my ego is still bruised and my feelings are hurt.
But there’s another feeling I have about Zac and this situation—and I’m not sure what it is yet. I want to put my finger on it, but I guess I’ll have to wait for it to reveal itself.
“He can write all the emails and texts he wants right now, but I need time to get over it.” I shrug a shoulder and let it drop limply. “IthinkI do. I’m really not sure, you guys. I was falling for him…no. It’s more than that.”
“What do you mean, it’s more?” Riley moves over to kneel beside my chair.
How do I say I was finally starting to trust him and trust myself? Trust saying yes and I, oh boy, I even trusted his kiss. Not that I had to trust the kiss, but it was the meaning and the expectation of what was behind that kiss.
My hand flies to my mouth, and I allow my fingertips to dance along my lips, re-tracing where Zac’s kisses had fallen only days ago.
“I think she’s trying to say she fell for him.” Amelia reaches out and squeezes my shoulder. “Fair assessment?”
Nodding, I put my hand over hers and drag my eyes to meet Riley’s. “She’s right. I fell hard, too.”
Riley bends down and throws her arms around me at the same time Amelia does it as well. Me, I let them both smother me with friendship and strength, cause I’m running low on motivation today.
“Okay, we’ll go get food, but I’m coming back and staying over another night.” Riley takes her forefinger and taps my nose on the very tip, doing her best Alexis fromSchitt’s Creekimpersonation. “Boop.”
“Get outta here.” I swat at her hand, laughing. “Stay as long as you like. I got a three-bedroom for a reason, you know.”
“I’m so glad you said that,” Riley calls out over her shoulder as she walks out the front door. “Be back soon!”
“You know she’s going to ask you to move in here, right?” Amelia manages to get out before she’s dragged out the front door.
Laughing, I stare at the closed door for a few minutes, almost expecting one of them to come back in for a last performance. Having the two of them around has been awesome, but it doesn’t allow time for me to get in my head. I learned a long time ago from my therapist that the mind is a dangerous neighborhood…you never want to go in it alone. Makes sense.
Hearing my tummy growl, I head into the kitchen to heat up some leftovers. As soon as I open the refrigerator, two small dogs appear at my feet like magic. No one is safe in a ten-mile radius around these parts if they open anything with a plastic top. These two are there, expecting to share whatever it is you’ve got.
Once I get the food going in the microwave, I walk Thor and Hercules to the front door so they can go out and do their business. Only, as I open it, they take off running down the drive. Parked at the end is a small sports car and a well-dressed man is climbing out of it on the driver’s side. They circle him, following him as he makes his way toward me.
“Can I help you?”
“Are you Etta McCoy?”
