Page 33 of I Shouldn't Feel This Way

“Save your threats.”

He was about to retort with heavier ammunition when he heard the dial tone. She had hung up. It was clear who had won this battle. If Aria hadn’t been around, he would have destroyed everything that came in his line of sight like he used to do. Noah was raging inside and had no way of relieving himself of that emotion. Surrendering to temptation, he quickly grabbed his pack of smokes from his trench coat and stepped outside onto the balcony, not bothering to put on a jacket. He stood in the cold night air and opened the ten deck. He had written an inscription inside of the box with a black pen:

I have officially quit smoking.

This is my last full deck, and also a reminder

to never touch a cancer stick again.

01/01/2012 — 12:00AM

N.M.H.

He had remained nicotine free for the past eleven months, and all that hard work and commitment was going to be thrown away in ten short seconds.

Just light up and take a drag.

“Noah?”

Half panicking, he shoved the cigarettes in his front pocket and turned around. His daughter was cushioning her weight against the finishing frame of the door.

“Hey, why did you wake up?” He suddenly felt like an adolescent boy who’d got caught doing something he shouldn’t have been doing.

“I thought I heard voices.”

Noah silently cursed himself because he knew he had most likely disrupted her sleep. He leaned back against the concrete railing and folded his arms in his chest.

“What are you doing out here?” Aria rubbed her arms, feeling the autumn chill in the air. Winter was almost on its way.

“I was looking at the view.”

“Oh.” She stepped on the cold concrete and walked toward him.

“You should get inside, it’s freezing out here.” He watched her face and wondered if she would notice the outlined box that he had stealthily stashed away in his pocket.

“I missed you,” she quietly whimpered, wrapping her arms around his waist. Noah hadn’t expected her to be so affectionate so soon, but her embrace was well received as he held her closer, shielding her from the frost of the night. The wind danced through her hair, whipping it around her face. He could feel her trembling, so he tightened his arms around her more. Surprisingly, he wasn’t cold. His body temperature seemed to be at a higher degree than the average man.

“Sweetheart, you’re shivering,” he murmured in her ear.

“I’m surprisedyou’renot.”

“I’m a man,” he said defensively, grabbing her hand.

“Exactly. You’re a man, not a bear.”

Noah chuckled at her comment and led her back inside, shutting the sliding screen door behind them. As soon as he turned around, Aria gasped. She was standing by the coffee table with her phone in her hand.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh my God, it’s almost midnight. Mom and Rob are going to flip!”

He sauntered toward her and looked into her eyes. “Relax. I called your mom and told her you were tired. You’re staying the night with me. She’s okay with it.”

Aria arched an eyebrow at him. “That’s strange …”

“How so?” He challenged her with a sly little smile.

“Because that’ssonot typical Mom behavior.”

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