Page 55 of You Were Invited
He stared into space for a moment. If she simply wanted to spend time with him, she would’ve either struck up a text conversation or would have just asked to visit. She didn’t specifywhatshe wanted to talk about, but if it wasn’t bad… he would bet money she wanted to discuss their relationship. Or so he reasoned.
He was game to try long distance if she was, though he was equally prepared for a ‘let’s just be friends,’ talk again.
But, unfortunately there was another matter thatheneeded to discuss, now that it was clear she was falling for him, too. One he was one-hundred percent sure she wouldn’t like.
I have to tell her... she’d want to know.
She was fresh out of an unpleasant relationship broken by substance abuse. He’d convinced himself that she didn’t need to know all of his past,beforehe’d caught proper feelings, but now it was probably an eventuality... It would be impossible to keep his secret from her. Despite how much shame it brought him, he knew she’d never forgive him if he said nothing. The town gossips would eventually bring his past to light.
So, as to not completely blindside her, he said he had something to tell her, too. He also wanted to add,“It’s nothing bad,”but he didn’t want to start off by telling a white lie before revealing a lie by omission.
He remembered he still had the leaky sink parts for her cabin, having brought them in with his groceries the day they’d gone coat shopping. Before heading over, he grabbed them.
She answered the door on the second knock. “Hey, Julian!” She grinned.
He smiled back and held out the bag of sink parts. “Forgot to give these to you.”
“Thank you.” She smiled warmly. “I’ll let Molly and Peter know about ‘em.”
“Great,” he said. He followed Annie into the cabin.
“Thanks for coming over on short notice.”
“Sure.” It smelled like she’d been cooking something with an herby red sauce, though he only saw her laptop, which was surrounded by notebooks and scraps of paper scribblings. She stacked them neatly and laid them over top of her closed computer.
“Sorry it’s a mess. Sit.”
He sat down, following her lead when she took a seat at the head of the table. “What’s up?”
“Well…” She worried her hands in her lap. Her chest rose in a long breath. “I… umm… was thinkin’… about us…”
“Good things I hope?” he teased lightly.
Slowly she nodded. “Yeah. We need to talk… about that.” She then glanced over at the kitchen. “Do you want anything to drink?”
He smiled. “No, I’m fine.” He reached forward and clasped her hands between hers.It’s okay. Say what you need to say.
She stared down at his hands, a small smile on her lips. Her eyes closed and she made a little noise. “Oooohh… maybe you should go first. I can’t spit the words out. What did you want to tell me?”
Shit.
His nerves shocked him, and his stomach did a flip-flop.
Then they sat, staring at each other.
“Julian, what?” Her voice was kind and patient, but her smile faltered.
“Well...” He supposed he better get on with it. “Er, I’ve really enjoyed your company. I know you have, too.”
She gave him a wide smile again and even squeezed his hands encouragingly. “Yes.” Relief coated her words.
Which made his confession that much harder.
“I’ll just cut to the chase.” His voice cracked around the lump growing in his throat. “There’s... Remember when I told you about my parents?”
A nod. She raised her eyebrow.
“There’s a bit more to that story.”
