Page 68 of Accidentally Mine
She was avoiding me.And she didn’t have to hide the reason why anymore.I knew everything.
Frowning, I decided to operate a bit more like my former self.I jabbed in another text:Dinner tonight.I need to talk to you.
I was surprised when I saw the three dancing dots, indicating that she was replying:I’m sorry.I’m in the middle of a big project and it’s going to take most of the night.
I stared at her message, leaned back in my chair and raked my hands through my hair, gathering fistfuls of it, my fingers grazing the raised, bumpy scar on my skull where they’d cut into the side of my head after the accident.It was the reason I wore my hair longer than before and slicked back—the hair hadn’t grown back over the four-inch incision.I jabbed in:Can I help?
My phone buzzed.Thanks.But I wouldn’t subject my worst enemy to this.
Great.That meant I wasn’t her worst enemy.But what the hell was I to her?
I suppressed the urge to ask her if she was avoiding me.It didn’t take a genius.
I couldn’t keep texting her and not getting any response.I had the compulsion to have Ernest drive me to her house and demand we clear the air, which I resisted.I’d already stalked her once.No wonder she’d looked at me with fear in her eyes when I’d shown up at that second café.She’d already had one controlling boyfriend, and she didn’t need another one.
So I texted Claudia and asked her if she wanted to meet me for dinner instead.She agreed, thankfully, saving me from another night of sitting at home.
I met Claudia at our favorite bistro in the Back Bay, close to her office, since she was always burning the midnight oil and would probably go back there to keep working after we finished.When she sat down across from me, she said, “Well, you look like shit.”
I mock-saluted her, then rubbed my jaw and realized I hadn’t shaved.
She studied me closer.“I thought being in love was supposed to have a positive effect?Looks like you’re going downhill.”
I frowned and opened my menu.“Where’d you get the idea I was in love?”
“Duh,” she said, setting her menu on the table and leaning forward.“I saw you two together.I’ve never seen you look so…peppy.When I dropped her at your house, you looked like a man possessed.You’ve seriously got it bad.I mean, when was the last time you wanted to be at a gala?”
I’d wanted to bewith her, not at the gala.But, as usual, my older sister was right.I had it bad.
When I didn’t answer, her face fell.“Oh, god.Trouble in paradise?Don’t tell me you kicked her to the curb already.She was so good for you.I think she’s the first girl I’ve seen you with who I actually liked.”
“That so?”
“Yes.She has a brain.You always seemed to date floozies whose IQs were smaller than their shoe size.What was with that?”
I scanned the menu, not really reading the words.I wasn’t very hungry.“Correction…I never dated anyone.”
“Right.My brother.Total nerdboy, and yet somehow manages to be king of the one-night stand.What a player.”She rolled her eyes.
She knew as well as I did that I didn’t set out to have meaningless sex with women.It was just what usually ended up happening since I never connected with a woman on a deeper level.Not until Roselynn.“Well.What can I say?”
“Say you’ll ask her out again!”she said, pounding both fists on the table hard enough to make the silverware jump.
I shook my head.Closed my menu.Sighed.“It’s not that simple.She turned me down, actually.”
Her jaw dropped.“Seriously?But she seemed so into you.What happened that day, after the salon?”
“Nothing.We had an amazing lunch.”And shewasinto me.Ernest had said the same.There was no question, we were intoeach other.But that didn’t make things easy.“She’s going through some personal stuff.”
“Right.You said that about her aunt.But…eventually you might get together?After the stuff with her aunt gets ironed out?”
“No.Probably not.”
She gave me an incredulous look.“How can you let that happen?I’ve seriously never seen you as wound up about a woman before.It’d be a sin to let her get away.”
“But I’m not going to force her.Look,” I said, leaning forward, ready to spill it all.“Remember during the gala when you were talking about my accident and she kind of shut down?”
She nodded.“Yeah.”
