“What?”
“Are you planning on coming back home?” he asks. “You know—with me?”
Home.
I did feel like I was at home when I was with him, and I know Lunchbox feels the same way judging by how comfortable he was there.
I chew on my bottom lip nervously. “Oh, well, I didn’t want to impose since we’re not… You know…”
He smirks. “Since we’re not a couple?” he finishes.
My face is flaming now, especially considering what we’ve already done together. “Yeah.”
“You already know how I feel about you, Essence,” he says. “I’m just waiting for you to be ready to be with me.”
Right. And of course, now I’m thinking about the masked man again. How am I going to tell him about Dante? We’ve already been through so much together, and when I envision a future for myself, it’s Dante that I imagine standing there next to me.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, breaking me from my thoughts.
I blink. “Nothing, uh, I just have a lot to think about. Can you give me your number so I can call you tomorrow?”
I go into the kitchen to put the flowers down and grab a pencil and sticky note. When I come back out, Dante is standing by the front door with a dejected look on his face.
“Dante?”
“Did I do something wrong?” he asks.
My brows furrow in confusion. “No, of course not. Why?”
He looks at me like he doesn’t even know me, and a sharp pain lances through my stomach. “Then why don’t you want to come with me?”
“Dante, it’s not that I don’t want to come with you, I just need to spend some time with my family. You understand, don’t you?”
His jaw works as he grits his teeth. “That’s the only reason?”
Now I’m really confused. “What are you talking about now?”
He lets out a sharp exhale and shakes his head. “Never mind. I’ll see you later.”
Before I have a chance to say anything else, he leaves with Lunchbox. I call after him for him to give me his number, but he ignores me. Standing on the porch in nothing but my sister’s yoga pants and thin t-shirt, I’m shivering as I watch the taillights on his truck speed down the street and around the corner.
What got into him?I wonder as I go back inside to the kitchen to put the flowers in water. I’m so hurt by his reaction, and now I won’t have another way of getting in touch with him unless I call the firehouse again.
It’s not until I’m back in the guest bedroom, snuggled under the covers, that it occurs to me.
He feels rejected. In that split moment of me thinking about the masked man, he took my deep thought for hesitance. It was never my intention to make him feel unwanted, but my feelings for both him and the masked man are warring. I want them both, but I want Dante more, and I should have told him that.
Now he’s mad at me, and I don’t know when I’ll see him again.
CHAPTER 31
ESSENCE
“Why don’twe all go to the carnival?” Ebony suggests cheerfully while we eat an early dinner.
Matthew is excited, but I’m really not feeling up to being around other people right now.
It’s been a few days since Dante was last here. He hasn’t come by to see me, and whenever I call the firehouse, his Captain always tells me he’s either not there or he’s busy.
