Page 36 of The Swiping Game
14
DEAN
I takea few steps into Tara’s apartment, even though I wasn’t invited in. I know I probably shouldn’t, but I’m not leaving. The woman said she was falling in love with me. And considering I realized today that I’m well on my way to being in love with her, I’m not leaving until she physically kicks me out.
“So you must be Dean,” a younger woman says as she stands from the most hideous-looking chair I have ever seen in my life.
“I am.” I reach out to shake her hand. “And you are?”
“Tawny, the sister,” she says. “And I’m going to let you two chat.”
Tawny swoops up one of the bottles of wine I’m noticing scattered across the apartment. And now that I look around, those bottles might be the only thing that match here. There’s the hideous chair, next to a very worn couch that Tara is currently sitting in. You can tell this whole house has been decorated by secondhand stores, and I have to bury my rage at her ex, because I’m going to assume that’s why Tara is living like this. Not to mention her apartment isn’t in the best area in town. When Sadie gave me the address, I had to do a double take.
“I’m ready when you are,” she says, her voice defeated.
“Ready for what?”
“I see you looking around. Make the jokes about the furniture. Or that you could probably walk right up here and not one person tried to stop you because the locks on the front door haven’t worked since we moved in here.”
I go and sit next to her, and as much as I want to reach for her hand, I know it’s probably not the best move right now. “I would never make fun of you for this. If anything, I’m now even more determined to find your douchebag of an ex-husband and make him pay you back every cent you’ve paid to get rid of his mistakes.”
This makes her look up. “You want to do what?”
“You heard me,” I say, reaching for her hand, which she gives to me. “I am a lawyer. I didn’t lie about that. I’m just not the normal kind. That doesn’t mean I don’t know a thing or two about how to make him pay. And if I can’t figure it out, my former law school roommate would be more than happy to make him pay. He’s the best divorce attorney in the state.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know I don’t have to. I want to. Even if you tell me after this to go play in traffic, I still want to help you.”
She laughs and falls back onto the couch, taking her hand with her. “I didn’t even think you liked me in real life. The Dean I know from two weeks ago would have made twenty jokes about this couch alone.”
I take her hand back because, well, I like holding it. And hopefully, just this little added touch will be the trick to help her believe everything I’m about to tell her.
“Do you remember the first time I teased you? I actually didn’t until today.”
“Yes. You gave me shit about eating a donut.”
“I did. And do you want to know why?”
She gives me an exasperated look. “Because you’re the mean bully on the playground, and somehow you knew I was having a shit day and you wanted to make it worse?”
“Not exactly,” I say. “Though I could tell you were having a bad day. So I teased you, hoping I could see your smile. Instead, I got a comeback I didn’t see coming, and that spark was just as good as your smile.”
“Want to know why you got the spark? That was the day after I found out about Brad and the cheating and the credit cards.”
My eyes go wide, and I’m pretty sure my jaw hits the ugly couch. “Oh my God, Tara. I didn’t know.”
She just shrugs her shoulders. “How could you? No one did. But that day, I bought myself a box of donuts because I knew that was probably the last time I’d be able to for a while. Then you came marching in, all ‘Look at me, I’m the sports agent’ and just sat on my desk and grabbed a donut. You’re lucky you left with both of your hands that day.”
I smile, taking her other hand in mine. “And at that point, our bickering was born.”
“Until this week.”
“Until this week.”
We both sit in silence, my thumb gently rubbing across the backs of her knuckles.
“Why, Dean?” she asks, breaking the silence. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
