“Yeah, we should.”
“I’ve got to work till three today, then I have to go with Dad to an appointment. I’ll be back around six. Will you be here?”
“Yeah.”
“All right,” he said, sounding relieved.
His fingers gripped my waist.
His breath tickled my lips.
We almost kissed.
A million dreams lay in waste around us.
One second. Two. Three…
There are moments that should last for an eternity.
60
He didn’t come back at six. Or at seven. Or at eight.
And all that time, his phone was off.
I tried him again. Got his voicemail again. Sank back into the sofa. How many more signs did I need? To know that no matter how much Lucas meant to me, this wasn’t our time.
That maybe it never was.
That maybe it never would be.
I was scared, and I felt trapped between those four walls.
And alone. Oh so alone.
My phone rang.
“Where are you?” I blurted out.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry… My battery died and I didn’t realize it.”
“Where are you?” I repeated.
“At my parents’ place. We got back from the appointment, and the whole family was here. My aunts and uncles, my cousins…they wanted to surprise him. And Dad asked me to stay the night. He looks so happy that I don’t want to upset him. He’s still not completely well, though.”
“Sure,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry. I really am. I’ll be there first thing in the morning, I promise.”
An invisible hand squeezed my throat so tightly I couldn’t respond. I heard voices through the phone. Some deep, some old, some young. And hers, telling them to cover the pool so her son wouldn’t fall in.
Everyone has a weakness. Lucas’s was his family.
“Maya?”
“Right. Tomorrow. I heard you.” I hung up. I wanted to hate him. I wanted to erase him from my memory, him and everything else, so I could stop feeling that way. I wanted to accept that what we’d had was temporary, fleeting. A handful of moments that stung just then, because they represented a different him, a different me. Because we hadn’t loved each other the same.
Maybe I was making love, and he was just fucking.
