My head snaps up. “I wasn’t-”
She lifts a hand and stops me. “I know you weren’t. I know that now. But at the time, I thought you were out with someone else. I thought it meant you didn’t feel the same way I did.”
Her voice cracks.
“So, I decided I would break up with you the next morning.” She sucks in a shaky breath. “Only… you told me you loved me. You said all the right things, and I thought, graciously, that I should put the past behind us.”
She looks away, blinking fast.
“But now I realize I shouldn’t have swallowed it,” she finishes. “Just like now.”
She looks me dead in the eyes. “I need to know everything.”
I swallow hard. She has no idea what she is asking for.
None.
Chapter Ten
Lorelie
Patrick looks sick the moment he realizes what I am asking him to do.
“You’re sure?” he asks, voice rough.
I nod. “I’d rather get it over with than pretend. I can’t pretend anymore.”
He swallows and nods, sitting forward as if the weight of the conversation is physically pulling him down.
“I was at O’Riley’s,” he starts. “Getting drunk. When a woman came up.”
My stomach twists. I resist the urge to ask what she looked like.
“She started talking,” he continues, “and I didn’t reply. I swear I didn’t. I just… kept drinking. Too much. I went to the bathroom to sober up before calling a cab, and that’s when she approached me. Or… followed me. I don’t know.”
He drags a hand down his face.
“I knew I should’ve stopped her, but I just froze.”
I nod, even though it feels like my throat is closing.
He goes on. “She made the move. She grabbed my hand first, and then she-”
He stops, shaking his head. “Lore, I don’t see the point in saying everything.”
“I do,” I whisper. “I need to know. If you kissed her. If you touched her. If…” My voice breaks in half. “If you wanted her.”
He closes his eyes for a long second, like the memory itself hurts to hold.
“I don’t remember kissing her. I don’t think I did,” he finally says. His voice is barely there.
My breath shakes so hard I have to rest my hand on the counter.
“I touched her,” he goes on, staring at the floor. “Over her clothes. Just for a second. And then… her hair got caught in the pin. The one you put on me.”
His voice fractures on that last part. He turns his face away like he’s ashamed to let me see him.
“And it was like someone threw cold water on me. A jolt. I realized what I was doing. What I was about to do. I pulled away. I stopped it.”
