"I think so."
"I will cut back on the jabs," I concede.
The optimism and inflection in her voice reveal all the hope she must be holding onto. The one positive I see coming from these new happy attitudes is that she'll find out I'm not inexperienced like she assumes.
I know she wants me, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a mutual attraction. But there is no way it could last beyond sex. We are too different, and she would drive me crazy.
Unless the sex was that good…
"Hey!" Amelia slaps her palms together and brings me back to our reality of being stranded.
"I'll be nicer. Stop setting traps for me and I'll be nicer," I repeat.
"Okay, fair. Deal. But you can't walk around shirtless."
"I knew it was a distraction."
"Okay, so sue me. It's a huge distraction. I'm fresh out of a breakup, and I have Thor's younger brother walking around without the hammer."
"Loki was his adopted brother. And I do have quite the hammer—"
"Can't you take a fucking compliment?"
"Is that what that was?"
The groan that comes out of her mouth is impressive, and if it wasn't filled with such annoyance, I'd find her roars quite the turn on.
"I feel like I've said enough, and you're sitting there getting admirations up the ass."
"What would you like me to say?"
She's flustered while I sit calm and collected.
"I've laid all my cards out on the table," she asserts. "I'm trying to make peace with you for the sake of my sanity."
"And I agreed we can scale it back."
"I still feel like I don't even know you."
"What would you like to know?" I ask, right as a white car zooms past us.
Traffic is moving along but at 40mph. Amelia's car shakes from the turbulence.
"What have you been up to in the last ten years?" she asks.
"Not a whole lot. I volunteered, which turned into a low-paying job. I had a blast learning the cultures and owning the few things I could fit in a backpack. I came home because I felt like my time was up—and I missed my mom."
"Why didn't you come back more often?"
"Would you like the honest answer or the scaled back version?"
"Honest."
"You and I left on bad terms, and I didn't want to see you. I knew you'd be excelling at whatever path you found yourself on. I was lost and confused, with no direction, and I didn't want you, or anyone, to see me like that. Most days I still feel like I'm on that same path with no end."
I'm being vulnerable, and I don't know if I like it or not. These are some deep emotions that I've never fully accepted, even in my own mind.
"I'm not excelling in anything right now," she admits. "I'm single, working the same job I had in high school, and I'm living at home. Who feels like a failure now?"
