“We’re face to face right now.”
“Yeah, with a chain in front of us.”
But I didn’t budge. “Say whatever it is you came to say before I call the police.”
He grinned. “You wouldn’t dare.”
My neighbor across the way from me poked her head out of her front door. “Hey, you okay out here?”
I peeked over at her. “Yeah, we’re good.”
“Rose, just open the damn door,” Blake said.
Claudia—my neighbor—balked. “You sure you good?”
I drew in a deep breath. “If he’s not gone in ten minutes, call the police, please.”
“Are you fucking serious right now? You’re acting like a child,” Blake said.
“Oh, I can do that. I can definitely do that,” my neighbor said.
I looked Blake square in his eyes. “You’ve got ten minutes.”
“I got a timer goin’, too,” Claudia said.
“Fine,” Blake said, “ten minutes, but you take the chain off this door and open it so we can actually talk.”
“Hmph,” Claudia harrumphed.
Against my better judgement, I did as he asked. I closed the door and quickly removed the chain before whipping it back open. And as I held my head high, refusing to collapse my shoulders in front of the man that had done this to me, his face softened.
“I’m so sorry, Rose.”
The tone of his voice caught me off-guard. “What?”
I’d never once seen that man’s shoulders slump until that very moment. “I fucked up big time, and I know I did. I know you don’t trust me, and I know you don’t really love me right now, either.”
I shook my head. “That isn’t true. The heart wants what it wants sometimes.”
He sighed heavily. “All I want is for you to come home. You can sleep anywhere you want, it doesn’t have to be with me. I just want a chance to fix this. I want a chance to prove to you how much I love you. How much I want you in my life.”
Even Claudia buckled underneath the weight of his words as a smile crossed her face. But that voice kept chirping in the back of my mind.
He’s desperate. You have eight years of precedence.
“Blake, I—”
He quickly reached for my hand, cupping it between both of his. “It will never happen again. You have my word, Rose. But the only way I can prove that to you is for you to give me time. That’s all I’m asking for, just a little more of your time to prove to you that I can be the man you deserve in your life.”
“Awww,” Claudia said.
“See? Even your neighbor understands,” he said.
I slid my hand out from between his. “Then, you won’t have any issues answering some questions in order to settle my mind. Yes?”
He nodded as his back straightened. “Of course. Ask away.”
“Four minutes,” Claudia said.
