Was I even in love?
I didn’t think it was something I’d ever experienced, but I was finally almostpretty sureI would recognize it if it showed up one day.
Hopefully with flowers and a diamond ring.
But in a holy cassock?
Definitely not.
Father Bastien and I were soul mates, there was no doubt about it, but Lucy and I were too. I’d run into a lot of amazing and generous souls in my life, people I just seemed to have instant chemistry with, but a one-way ticket on the love train that did not make.
“I wouldn’t say that I really love anyone.”
Lucy tried to hide the look of doubt on her face by flicking her hair and standing up from the tub. “Whatever, Tressa Torrado.”
She blew me a kiss over her shoulder and then breezed down the hallway and into the small kitchen, bathroom door left hanging wide open.
“Suddenly I feel so sober,” I grouched, standing from the tub and tucking a towel around my body. “And I was gonna make homemade pizza for us tonight.”
“For you, you mean.” Lucy was already pulling salad ingredients out of the refrigerator.
“No,” I husked, that entire bottle of wine suddenly bubbling up in my brain. I hunched onto the barstool, both elbows on the counter.
“You’re dripping on the floor, ya know.” She didn’t even bother to look. “It’s been two days since the cardinal visited. Why are you still hiding out here?”
I huffed, hardly able to catch a thought in my head. “M’not hiding.”
“Bastien asked about you today.”
“He did?” I jumped from the stool, edging around the corner to get closer to Lucy.
Her eyes cut to me, taking in my chilly, soaked form. “I told him you haven’t been feeling well.”
“Oh.”
“And he was worried.”
“Oh?” I perked up again.
“He asked if he could bring you soup.”
A smile crept over my lips at his attentiveness to my imagined sickness. “He’s so sweet.”
“Guess if you’re into that.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I told him it wasn’t a good idea. I figured you didn’t want him to see you like this anyway.”
“Oh,” I breathed, suddenly aware of my shivering form.
“But he really looked concerned, T.”
I bit down on my lip, eyes hanging heavy on hers.
“I was going to lie, wasn’t even going to say a thing,” she said quickly. “But then I came home and found you like that.” Her eyes swept up and down me. “Geez, you’d think you were the one jilted by her baby daddy.”
I slumped down into the chair, processing her words through the wine fog. “Wait.” My head pounded, awareness chugging just out of reach. “Baby daddy?”
Her grin softened, and she stepped closer, sliding a little white stick out of her pocket and across the counter to me.
“Pregnant.” She shrugged, eyes watery with emotion.
