“He said he can’t promise you, and your conversation ended there?”
“After that, I fell asleep and when I woke up he was gone.”
“Oh, how romantic!” Rain brings her hands to her mouth and her eyes get wet.
She’s terribly emotional and these things literally send her over the edge and since she’s been with Liam things have only gotten worse.
“There’s nothing more to it than that, Rain.”
“How can I believe it? How can you be this way about something like that?”
“You know I can’t think about these things…that I can’t consider him in that sense.”
“It seems like a regular declaration of love to me.”
I huff and settle into the couch, taking another sip of tea. I’ve been home for three days and Liam brought Rain over for a visit. He’s out chatting with my father to give us some girl time but I know she’s going to go blab everything to him as soon as she leaves here anyway.
“Alex,” Rain says, taking on a serious tone of voice. “Give yourself a chance. You guys were just kids, both of you scared. You were afraid of what you had just discovered, he was scared that after the death of his mother, he was risking losing you too. It’s understandable that you were both terrorized about what could happen. But now you’re adults and as far as I can remember Jay has never brought a girl home, or to the pub or shown any real interest in anyone. Doesn’t that tell you anything?”
“Oh yeah? Well then, who was that girl in the photo?”
“That’s Lynn.”
“Lynn?”
“One of the girls who works at the pub. Believe me there’s nothing going on between them.”
“And how would you know?”
“I just do, trust me. I know her, I know him and there’s nothing going on there.”
“But he’s…he’s hugging her!”
“So what? He hugs me too.”
“That’s different.”
“Not true. Jay is a dear friend, for me and for other people.”
“I don’t know…”
“So this is it, huh? This is what pushed you over the edge the other day. You were jealous and you made yourself sick.”
“Me? No!”
“Alex…”
“I was just stressed about all this ambiguity between us.”
“You should talk about it with him.”
“Not now, not today and not soon. I need some time to be in peace by myself.”
“With your books, I imagine.”
“Books are not risky.”
“Neither is Jay.”
