He stares at me.
“It was a question, not a statement.”
“Nashville.”
Why is this so hard? Once again, I feel it—sad love. Does “I love you” not mean I want to be with you? My heart clenches.It doesn’t.I still love Daniel, but I no longer want to be with him.
“Is that where your tour begins?”
Theo’s eyes avert to the side for a few moments. “Sure.”
With each breath…one… two… three…I feel this deep pain, a slow carving of a Theo-shaped hole in my heart.
“Are you leaving me?”
He shifts his gaze to me again as he expels a grunt. Theo has many grunts and they don’t all mean the same thing. This grunt sounds like a sarcastic grunt.
“I have some things I need to do.”
“Want some help?”
His glare hardens a fraction. The lines at the corners of his eyes deepen. “No.”
“Is it tour stuff?”
The muscles in his jaw tense. “Don’t do this.”
“Do what? Wonder why you said you loved me but now you’re leaving? I know, I have no right to ask it. I did the same thing to Daniel. Karma’s usually my friend but not today. I need to know. What is the life expectancy of us? Three days? Is that what you’re implying? I do better when I can prepare for things, which is crazy because I prepared to be dead by now, but I’m not and that’s really,reallya spectacular surprise, but—”
“Three days,” he says with a firm finality.
I pinch my lips between my teeth and nod slowly for a few seconds. “Okay then. We have three days.” I climb off his lap and kneel on the floor between his legs, dropping the dress to the floor. “I was wrong. Today… sex is the answer.”
He spreads his legs wider and scoots down a little in the chair as I lean forward, grab his erection, and bring it to my mouth. I’m on my knees—naked. My tongue is giving his cock some special attention. I havenogag reflex. Yet… when I look up, all I see is a hint of a grimace, flared nostrils, and glassy eyes.
Pain.
Theo is in pain.
*
Theo drives mehome and stays the night in my one-bedroom flat with a cheap double mattress on the floor and gaudy paisley yellow and pink sheets that were in the sale. We answer every question with sex. Then we pass out a few hours before my alarm goes off.
“I have to get to work.”
Theo makes some undecipherable noise, facedown on my bed, as I shove my feet into my trainers. I ache in places that I had no idea could ever ache. I will have to ride my bike toNolan’s house, standing up the entire way. There’s no way I’ll be able to sit on that seat—for weeks.
“And your job is what again?” he mumbles, turning his head to the side and peeling open his eyes. His body engulfs the bed.
I may not walk right or sit on my bike seat for weeks, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to miss the hell out of this man for the rest of my life. Swallowing back that lump of regret, I smile. “I assist Nellie.”
“Assist her how?”
“Well, we shopped and ate lunch together the other day.”
“That sounds really helpful.”
In the past twenty-four hours, Theo has found it rather fun to say everything with a British accent. He’s such a cheeky bastard and his accent is total shit.
