Page 98 of Invisible String
“That’s what I thought,” he tells Dad, who averts his gaze from me. “Eat up, baby sis, so we can get out of here. We tried to have a family dinner, but he’s still all about himself.” Justin gives our dad another strange, brow-raised look.
We finish our dinner, and Dad stays silent for the entire fifteen minutes.
After leaving the restaurant,I meet with Lana for some shopping therapy. She waves to me, sitting on a bench at the outdoor mall. “Hey, you.” She gives me her cutesy grin. She’s still in her scrubs. “How was dinner? By the look on your pretty face, I’m guessing shit?”
A laugh of disbelief escapes from my lips. “It started out with how Andrew should move in with me.”
She loops her hand in mine and makes a gagging sound. “Yuck.” From start to finish, I tell her the conversation with my dad.
“What the fuck? I agree with you. What is it with your dad hating on Max? If money is the case, it makes sense. I see my parents acting the same way. It’s all about status. You and I are so different—especially you, Rainey. You see the good in everyone. With Max, you fell hard for him regardless of whether he’s not a big talker, or if he wasn’t the popular kid. Then during the summer at the cabin, you found him again. You both clicked back into place. You fell in love with him. And you knew he wasn’t in a good place, although he didn’t tell you, but you said you felt it.” She points to a guy with an ice cream stand.
I nod.
She continues as we get up and walk over. “You danced with him at a gala. Who gives a fuck? Your dad is pissing me off more. I’m trying to keep my respect for the man, but I hate him now.” We stand in the long line. “It’s not like you’re back with him.”
She’s been so busy with work that I haven’t told her the latest. “He kissed me.”
She gasps so loud that the woman beside us gives us a stink eye. “What, when, and why?”
“We argued. Okay, I argued with him while he was saying the sweetest, the most darn perfect words that shook me to my core. Then he pressed his hot sexy lips on mine, and I was in heaven, sucking his face, wrapping my legs around him, humping him.”
Lana covers her mouth. “Oh, my gosh, Ney.”
The woman beside us pulls out her earbuds, her eyes wide.
“Where?”
“In my office. After a hot, long minute, I pushed him away, only for seconds later. I pulled his shirt, and we went back at it. My hands were feeling him up, Lana.” It was muscle memory. Then, of course, I tell my best friend the heart-melting words Max spoke.
“Do you believe him? Do you think he will finally fill you in on his life? And stay?”
I’ve never told a soul about the scars on Max’s back, how his father would hit him. It’s personal and not my story to tell.
“I’m not sure I’ve thought that far ahead. I just don’t trust my heart with him.” Or any other part of my body. It feels too good.
“You haven’t had sex in four years, and I don’t know how you’ve done without it.” I narrow my eyes at her. “Okay, sorry, I know why you haven’t. It’s me who doesn’t understand because I’ve never found anything like you had with him. It must be fate for you two to see each other again.”
Finally, it’s our turn. “Strawberry cone for me,” I say.
“Double chocolate,” Lana adds. We both pay and walk to a clothing store.
“I don’t know what it is. But he’s been coming by every day we’re open.” Except for that one Saturday. I don’t know where he was, but I was watching the door pathetically. “After the kiss, when he showed up, I felt stuck. I don’t know what to do after all he said.”
Lana licks the cone around to catch all the drips. “Is it possible to be friends with him without getting attached again? Or sleeping with him, telling your heart not to get emotional? Like a no-strings-attached type of ordeal?”
I raise my brows. “Maybe if it was a guy I’d never met or knew little about, but this is Max. The man I love. I mean loved.”
“Oh boy, Ney. You're in for a ride. The question you should ask yourself is, what if he keeps trying and you keep pushing him away? One day, he stops coming. You have to understand, hun, that if it’s months and months of trying, a person can only take so much rejection, and he’ll get the hint. You sure you really don’t want him? How will you react to that? Will it be okay, or will it break you?”
I hate her questions because she’s right. I love seeing him as much as I’m terrified of being with him and hurting me. “It would break me,” I whisper.
She places a wet kiss on the side of my head. “I know it would, babe. How about you start with small talk instead of biting his head off every time?”
We try on a couple of outfits and dresses, and dinner with my dad is forgotten. We walk back to our car with bags in hand. Shopping really helps. I needed it.
“I have something to tell you.” Lana gives me a devilish smirk.
“What did you do?” I laugh.
