Page 28 of Fall Into You
My initial reaction of pure joy at seeing her dissipates as soon as I take a second look at her face. Though still beautiful, Liza looks sad, tired—like she hasn’t slept or had one thing to eat in days. Her normally wavy, full, and bouncy hair is a disheveled mess.
“What are you doing here?” she whispers at me, glaring. Her reaction to my presence is hurtful and surprising. So what if I’m here? Is it really that bad? Does she hate me now or something?
“Hi, I’m doing great, Liza, thanks for asking,” I say sarcastically.
“No, seriously, what are you doing here? You can’t just show up here.”
I roll my eyes at her, annoyed, but try not to push her away too much. “I was invited,” I say.
“Invited? Why the hell would Vinny invite you? And why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” Okay, so she’s obviously not as happy to see me as I am to see her.
“First of all, Vinny is my friend, remember? Second of all, I didn’t know you were coming!” I whisper-yell. “What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is that we almost slept together, and Vinny is going to freak if he ever finds out.” She puts her hands on her hips like a school teacher about to send me to detention. Truthfully, I’d volunteer for detention if it meant she was the one doing the punishing.
Okay, get your head out of the gutter there.
“Yeah,almost. As in didn’t,” I say. She scoffs and rolls her eyes at me. It’s like she’s pushed me in the chest and kicked me in the balls. “Wait, are you mad at me?” I don’t try to mask the shock on my face or in my voice.
“Yes. No.” She shakes her head. “I don’t know.”
“Liza, what did I do?” I panic and sift through everything that happened that Saturday night and Sunday morning but can find nothing wrong. She cried. I held her. We looked for her necklace. I made her hot tea. I didn’t use her vulnerability to take advantage of her or anything like that, so what happened? Maybe it’s because I left in a hurry the following morning?
“Is it because I left early Sunday? Because that wasn’t my fault. I had work I had to get to.” I reach for her hand, but she pushes mine away.
She frowns and takes a deep breath before saying, “I’m superstitious, okay? And the fact that I realized that my necklace was gone right before we…well,you know…makes me think that maybe it was a sign that we probably shouldn’t be doing this,” her voice cracks. She closes her eyes and takes another deep, steadying breath.
No.
This is so stupid.
I need to let her know how right we are for each other, how good this is. I can’t let her just throw this away over a silly superstition. But I also don’t want to push her when she’s in a vulnerable position. I look down into her eyes and can’t help myself. I run my fingers through her hair and down to her waist. I hold her gaze when I cup her face, and her breath stutters.
“Liza,” I say as gently as possible. “I really care about you. I understand that what happened Saturday must have brought back a lot of grief—as you know, I lost a parent, too, so I know how it feels. But I don’t think what happened was a sign that we aren’t right for each other. If anything, it could be a sign that we are.” I shake my head and exhale. “I don’t know, Liza. I don’t believe in any of that, but I respect that you do. If that’s what you choose to believe, I want you to know that I’m not happy about it, because I really care about you.” I take a deep breath before continuing.
“I’ve been going out of my mind this week wondering how you were, whether you were okay, why you weren’t answering my calls and being so cold via texts. I want to be with you. I want to do what we talked about and see where this goes. But if this is really what you want, if you really want to stop…” I sigh deeply, feeling defeated. “Then I’ll do it. I’ll stop calling and texting, and I’ll see you only on occasion, whenever our paths cross.”
Her eyes water, and she sniffles but doesn’t say anything. After a beat, she leans into me, placing her head on my chest, and I almost die from the relief. It’s like my whole body has been tense for the past few days, bracing itself for impact, for this one deciding moment, and it’s here, and the choice has been made, and…she chooses me. My arms wrap tightly around her, pulling her even closer, and I exhale. In this moment, I don’t care if Vinny catches us.
“I’m so sorry,” she mumbles against my coat. “I never meant to push you away like that.”
“It’s okay,” I whisper. “It’s been a really difficult week for you. Just know that you don’t have to push me away. I’m here for support.” She nods against my body, and I press my lips to the top of her head.
“Hey, guys. Watcha doing?” An amused Danielle stands beside us with her hands on her hips, a smile from ear to ear breaking across her face.
Oh, shit.
“Uhhhhh…” I see Liza’s face flush as she scrambles for an excuse. She looks to me for help, but my mind is blank. There is nothing in this brain of mine right now. Suddenly, I know exactly what will happen. Danielle will tell Vinny what she saw, Vinny will lose it, and the whole thing will be so dramatic and problematic that Liza will decide it’s too much to handle and will break things off with me.
“I was just telling Matt about the necklace and got upset, so he was comforting me,” she says. Not a total lie.
“Uh, yeah,” I say super convincingly. I should win an Oscar for my performance.
“Riiiggghhhhtt,” Danielle laughs. “Anyway, we were wondering where you went, Liza. The doorbell rang a few minutes ago, and you never came back. Would you mind helping Vinny put the twins to bed? I have to finish up with the sides.”
She clears her throat and straightens. “Yup, absolutely. No problem,” she says and walks away toward the hallway on the right.
My feet are made of stone. I cannot move. “Uhhh,” I say intelligently.
