Page 104 of Caper Crush
“So you are upset,” I say slowly.
“A little.” He keeps his gaze trained on the subway posters.
The subway seems to take forever to get to Franklin Street, William’s stop.
We step out.
“Should we walk to the river?” William asks. “It’s still nice out.”
That seems like a good sign.
We walk, not talking, to the riverfront where we cross the bike path and stand by the balustrade overlooking the Hudson. I glance at him, but he’s looking straight ahead. He’s also not holding my hand.
William turns to me. “Did you follow me there?”
It could have been coincidence that we ended up there, given that Tessa works in Times Square, but I’m not going to lie to William.
“Yes,” I say. “It was stupid of me.”
“I opened up Google Maps to check the bar address and I saw you following me. Don’t you trust me?”
“I do trust you.”
“Do you?” He runs his hand through his hair.
“I didn’t think you’d cheat on me or anything. But I don’t trust Kiyoko. She likes you.”
“Even if she likes me—I’m dating you.”
“It was really stupid of me,” I say. “If it’s any consolation, I didn’t spy on you in the bar. I just caught up with Tessa once we got inside. We really did have a girls’ night out then.”
“But relationships are about trust. You know that. If we don’t have that foundation, I don’t know how this works.”
My breath hitches. I was a fool. “I know. It’s really not that I thought you would cheat on me with her.”
“Then what was it?” he asks.
“I was worried that she would tell you she liked you. You used to have feelings for her. I didn’t know if maybe those feelings were stronger than what you have for me now.”
He rubs his forehead. “How’d you know Kiyoko would do that?”
My intuition was right about that at least.
“It was pretty obvious at karaoke.”
“I thought I made it obvious when I left with you,” he says. “You could have warned me. What the hell? First, she tells me I’m absolutely not her type. Then she sings a whole bunch of love songs to me, and now she tells me she made a huge mistake.”
I take this in. “I felt it was her place to tell you, not mine.”
“Should I worry about you and Rex then?” he asks.
“No, I’m over Rex,” I say.
“But by your logic, your relationship history is a lot longer and deeper with Rex.”
“I didn’t say that my stalking you today was logical,” I say. “But it’s also different. The way Uncle Tony said it, it was like you’d really liked Kiyoko but she wasn’t interested. So now if she is interested, maybe you’ll be interested. Whereas with Rex, yes, we have a very long history. But I don’t have any regrets that I missed out on something with him—or thoughts that it will work out.”
“I see,” William says. “Uncle Takashi and Tony seem to think I’m really some emotional wreck.”
