“Friendly dinner event,” he laughs. “It sounds pompous and like you’re just trying to get her into bed.”
“No!” I stand from the desk only to pace my office back and forth. “I want it to be serious this time around. I know how I feel about her, and I know she feels the same about me…”
“Has she actually said that?” Kyle butts in.
I love you, she whispered in her sleep. These words are giving me too much hope. They also scare the shit out of me because I don’t see myself as being capable of being in a committed relationship.
I don’t respond to Kyle, just continue pacing. This seems to be my thing lately. I have lost focus of anything else, all my efforts concentrated on winning Mona back.
“Anything else I can help you with?” Kyle’s tone is teasing. “Should I plan our calendar for the foreseeable future around you trying to get Mona back?” He lets out a snort. “Without her knowledge.”
I freeze in my spot and frown at him. “What are you even saying?”
He shrugs and makes a funny face, once again reminding me of what a clown he is.
“I’m just saying that she’s not going to be an easy conquest this time. I just know it. You lost her trust, and there’s a good chance that you’re wasting our time.”
“Whose time?” I snap at him.
“Mine and Zara’s for one,” he snorts again. “Then there are the others. We all have lives that we’d rather not revolve around your sexy times.”
With both hands on my hips, I drop my head back and stare at the ceiling for a few moments. My first instinct is to tell Kylethat I don’t need anyone’s help. But then I remember that I did ask for a favor, at short notice to boot.
“She loves me.” I let out a long breath of air. “She just needs help with admitting it to herself, and to me.”
I drop my head back down when I don’t hear any reaction from Kyle. He has this puzzled look on his face, like he doesn’t know what to make of what I just said.
“Are you so convinced that she loves you?” He scratches at his head, still confused. “She’s made it pretty clear this time that she doesn’t want you back, right?”
I wince at that. “I wouldn’t say that…”
He points at me. “She blocked you!”
“True,” I agree. “But she still talks to me when we run into each other, and…”
Kyle jumps up from his chair, throwing his arms out. “You don’t justrun into each other! You manipulate the situation so she’d give you the time of the day!”
Everything that he says makes sense. That’s all I’ve been doing from the moment I knew that I needed Mona back. But the way I look at it, I am lying to her for a good cause. And it’s not like I’ve been lying about everything, only about theHolidatesaccount. She would understand it once I explained everything. Besides, we continue having the most amazing connection in bed, and that trumps everything else.
“Do you have a better idea on how I should deal with this?” I ask Kyle.
He seems to be a little deflated at first, but then, his eyes light up and he’s back to his old animated self.
“Tell her everything about your parents,” he starts.
I slash a hand through the air. “Done.”
“You told her about your parents?” He gives me an incredulous look. “I thought we were best buds. It took you years to tell me, but she knows?”
I roll my eyes at that. He’s way too dramatic, as always.
“Since you pride is wounded, I didn’t tell her everything,” I admit. “Only that my mother trapped my father with a baby.”
Kyle’s head bobs up and down. “So she doesn’t know that your father became obsessed with that, which in turn transformed you into the nutcase that you are today?”
I grab a piece of paper off the desk, ball it in my hand before launching it at his head.
“Easy there,” he laughs. “You could give my eyeball a papercut, and then I won’t be able to see well enough to draw. How am I going to make you money?”
