Page 59 of Fierce-Gabe

“You know I’m just joking,” she said.

“I do. And that you are means you’re feeling more like yourself getting all that baggage off your chest. And speaking of chests...why do you do that? You are again today?”

His eyes were on her boobs under her green button-down shirt that she had on with tan pants.

“They get in the way.”

“Or they remind you of being a woman and it’s you rebelling against your mother?” he asked.

“I think I thought that years ago. It was something my mother used to talk about. But they did get in the way. When Iwas playing sports or working with my father. It’s hard to find shirts that fit right too.”

She wasn’t a big person. She was petite and wore a small on top, but her boobs made it hard to find things. Buying a larger size had the clothes bagging on her. Wearing a tighter bra helped smooth things out under it all.

“That’s all it is?” he asked.

“It is now. I swear.”

She’d wear a nice bra for him at some point. If they got to that again.

When she came here she wasn’t sure if it would be the last time or not.

Gabe was too good for her that he was so accepting of what she’d said. She at least had some hope.

Hope was something she hadn’t felt with a man in a long time.

“Okay,” he said. “Do you feel better now that you said what you wanted? Or is there more I need to know? Did your mother have something to do with what happened years ago? Might as well spill it all.”

She didn’t want to rehash the past. “Can we keep that locked away?”

“No,” he said. “Because I don’t want anything to ever come back to redirect our future. If we have one. I guess that is going to depend on you.”

“Do you want one?” she asked. “Seems to me I’m carrying the big fault flag in the asshole parade.”

He grinned at her. “This time you might be but only because you didn’t talk to me before. Now you can lower that flag. I’d like to clear the air completely though. If things don’t work out with us, for whatever reason, we have a working relationship. It’s best to know we can continue with that like civil humans.”

He was being much more mature about this than she was.

“Yes,” she said. “My mother had called that night and given me crap about not looking like a woman. That I’d never find a guy. More of the same. My roommate convinced me to go to that party. I was watching you and listening to you sing. Sandra brought over that beer for me to give you.”

“And you didn’t know who I was. I had no idea. I thought you did.”

“I didn’t,” she said. “You explained how you knew me. To me, you were just this hot guy with a voice that was making my panties wet. No one had done that before.”

“Since you were a virgin I get it. But you can’t tell me that no man ever turned you on. You didn’t have a boyfriend in high school?”

“I did,” she admitted. “Nothing serious. Not to get to the point of sleeping together. After we were done, I just had all this damn regret.”

She saw the hurt on his face. “Thanks.”

“I don’t mean it that way.” She was good at messing everything up in her life. “Just that once again I let my mother control my actions. I made you part of it. I didn’t regret what we did. Just that it’s like my mother was controlling that big rig and guiding me where I wouldn’t normally go. I just figured what a crappy way to start something.”

“Which is why we didn’t go anywhere?” he asked.

“Well, you shouting at me about using you hadn’t helped. It just added to the guilt.”

“I’m sorry. I think it was hearing your roommate laughing about you dressing up like that and saying getting a man was great and now the virginity was out of the way.”

“You heard her saying that?” she asked. She had no idea. “You were listening outside my door?” That explained where those accusations came from.

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