Page 9 of A Me and Him Thing
“Something tells me you need to unload some of that burden you’re carrying around on your shoulders.”
“Is it that obvious?” I remove my unneeded seat belt.
“It is to me.”
I shake my head. “You don’t want to hear my story, and I don’t want to tell it.”
“I’m a good listener, and I have a pretty comfortable shoulder. So I’m told.”
“Are you serious?” Do I dare talk aboutit? The worst days of my life? Do I mention how I was the cause of those terrible days? Or how much my decisions affected other people? Or how I was Bree the Betrayer?
“Yes. Unload. I think you need it.” His eyes are intense even in the dark car.
Unload. Man, that sounds good. I haven’t spoken to anyone about what happened two months ago. Or the havoc I caused. Not one soul has shared in my anguish or my disgust. Frankly, Iamin need of a good vent. It might be the late hour, it might be that my defenses are down, but I realize I want to tell him. I want someone to listen to me, to hear my hurt. No judgment involved. I need an innocent bystander, someone who won’t take sides. Someone who will simply sympathize with me and tell me how awful it was that it happened to me. Someone who won’t hate me for my insane actions.
“Hey, I’m an ax murderer. I’ll whack the guy that hurt you.”
I don’t laugh. Not possible. “He didn’t mean to hurt me,” I whisper. “It just happened that way.”
He sobers. “Tell me. Let it out.”
I give in to the need to unburden myself. “Two months ago, I was engaged to be married. I was really happy too. But it ended.”
“Why did it end?”
He doesn’t joke, or mock me, and I’m glad of that. It tells me he knows when to joke and when to be serious. That’s important.
“I think I need to start from the beginning.”
“Okay.” He settles into his seat, making himself comfortable.
I tell him everything. I tell him about Quinn and how we’ve been best friends since middle school. I tell him how sweet, kind, and delicate she is, the total opposite of me. I explain how she is the Melanie to my Scarlett.
“I love Scarlett,” he says. “She’s a tenacious gal. I love someone who never gives up.”
That’s my favorite thing he’s said all night.
I tell him about Sawyer Denali and how we met. I tell him about Sawyer and Quinn’s perfect love story and how much I always envied what they had. With tears in my eyes, I tell him about Quinn’s tragic death and how hard it was to go on without her.
I can’t hide my love for Josie and Jordyn as I tell him about caring for them in Quinn’s absence. I admit to falling in love with Sawyer, wanting what he and Quinn had.
“It took him a while, but he felt the connection between us too. We didn’t fall in love. It was more like a very slow crawl toward love. But we eventually got there. I mean, I knew he really wanted Quinn. I was simply a person to assuage his loneliness. I knew it, yet I convinced myself he would learn to love me just as much as he had loved Quinn. In the end, he did ask me to marry him. I know he did it because I pushed him into it. Still, I said yes.”
I express how happy I was, how I really thought my life was perfect. “Then it all came crashing down. No warning whatsoever. It happened so suddenly, I think we were all shell-shocked.”
“I don’t understand. What happened?” Ren asks, deeply invested in my story.
“Quinn returned home.”
“Wait, she wasn’t dead?” he asks with surprise.
“No, and I was so happy to see her. I could hardly believe it. But then one glance at Sawyer and I knew it was over between us. The look on his face said it all. His wife had returned to him, the one he adored, the one he truly loved.”
“Wow. That’s really tough. I’m so sorry.”
I look into his eyes in an attempt to perceive what he’s thinking. His eyebrows are furrowed, his expression subdued.He feels for me. I can see it in every aspect of his demeanor. He strikes me as a man who feels emotions acutely.
He continues. “To have a loved one come back when you thought they were gone forever. I can’t imagine.” He runs one hand through his hair and breathes out heavily.
