Page 55 of You Can't Fight Lightning
This must be the Zeus voice.
“And you deserve to be loved, and to be happy. Don’t let what has happened in your past hold you back. You’re too wonderful to be alone. You deserve all that you want. I hoped that might be me. But if it’s not, I can live with that. The time I’ve spent with you has been the honor of my existence, Roxy.” He lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed it softly.
The touch of his full lips to my skin sent me aflame. I felt as though I was going to burn into a flame and disappear.
Holy shit.
Holy.
Shit.
What would it be like to feel his lips somewhere else? Everywhere else?
What would it be like to be loved by this man?
While I was thinking about that, he let go of my hand, and walked away.
I watched him as he climbed onto his bike, the sound of the motor loud in the silence of the night.
As he drove away from where I stood, the rain started in earnest as thunder rolled through the night and the lightning lit up the sky.
I was alone.
Chapter Fourteen
Z
The day after I’d left Roxy outside of her apartment felt like one of the longest I’d ever experienced. I wanted her to call me, to come by, something.
But I didn’t see her.
I wanted to go to Big Pete’s, to see if she was there. Just to see her.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I ordered a lot of room service. There were a lot more sweets than I normally consumed. It was as though the baked feta and honey had opened up some sort of craving within me.
I couldn’t get enough of them.
The second day, I was restless. I couldn’t sit still, couldn’t get into any of the new books I’d checked out before Roxy and I had gone on our date. I started and put down four in a row.
More room service.
Ice cream with honey.
I couldn’t sleep.
On the third morning, I got up, and forced myself into the shower. I’d done the right thing. I didn’t like it, it felt like shit, but I’d done the right thing.
“This was why I didn’t do it as much before.”
Oh, gods. Now I was talking to myself. According to human lore, the next thing would be me shuffling through a house in stained pajamas, yelling at children passing by outside, and multiple cats would appear as the only companions for the rest of my life.
I wondered how the cats showed up. ‘Crazy cat lady’ was something I’d read in a couple of the books. I’d looked it up on my phone. It was a thing.
Maybe that was just women?
I didn’t know. All I knew was that I was going to go mad if I didn’t get out of here.
