Her chest was moving fast, she stared me down one more second. Then she turned on her heel back toward the ballroom and whatever was left of her night.
I kept my face expressionless, but inside I wanted to crawl out of my skin. I hadn’t come to Lennox Falls to be a woman raging with another woman, over a man of all things. Wanting Julian had felt so clean and clear on the dance floor, but out here, it felt like a thing I’d let break my composure in public.
And underneath it all, the smallest thing she’d said earlier had stayed put.
He’s a giver. He sees a need, and he meets it.
I’d taken her apart on the merits. I could do that in my sleep. The other thing, the only thing that mattered, I couldn’t do at all:be sure.The last time I’d been certain about a man, I’d been wrong. Sabrina was a fraud and I’d read her down to the studs. None of that told me whether, to Julian, I was the woman, or the need he could meet.
Taryn appeared at my side and looped her arm through mine, Simone through the other like nothing had happened, steering me back toward the light, away from spectators.
“For the record,” Taryn whispered, “that wasart.”
“I can’t believe I argued with a drunk woman over a man." I shook my head embarrassed. “Pathetic.”
Simone squeezed my arm. “Stop it. You didn't argue over a man. She grabbed you, and you handled it. Those are different sports."
I let them walk me back inside.
19/
sex is the small part
julian
I’d held women before.I'd never held one and then spent the next eighteen hours with my hands still wanting the feel of her in them.
Eighteen hours, and neither of us had spoken a word to each other. I'd picked up my phone a dozen times and set it back down, because I didn't know what the message should be. About the way she'd felt against me while Luther crooned? Or about Sabrina cornering her across the ballroom. Taryn had called at two in the morning, right after I'd gotten home, and given me the CliffsNotes version. I didn’t get a minute of sleep after that.She said some foul shit, Julian. Alyssa’s not one to play with though, she didn't even flinch.
I'd half expected to hear from Alyssa about it, but I hadn’t heard from her since. I grabbed my phone deciding if I should lead with our dance and what it meant, or the woman who'd cornered her. Then my phone lit up.
ALYSSA
Making dinner tonight. Nothing fancy. If you’re around and hungry, stop by.
I was in my car and at her door in forty minutes.
Dinner wasshort ribs that she said she slow cooked. Her place was warm with the smell of it when I got there. We sat and ate while Micah talked the entire meal. How he’d won a game in gym class. Whether the dog he wanted should be named Nugget or Diesel. I voted for Diesel.
She didn't mention Sabrina. Didn't mention the gala at all. We ran the evening like any ordinary night, because Micah was at the table and some conversations don't happen in front of an eight-year-old.
Micah cleared his plate and begged Alyssa for thirty more minutes on his tablet before bed. She told him know, and he pouted before accepting defeat and. He bumped my fist goodnight then disappeared down the hall to his room, and closed the door. Then it was the two of us and a quiet that changed temperature the moment he was gone.
We ended up on the couch with a television show on that neither of us going to watch. I picked up the remote and turned it off and we looked at each other, inches apart.
“So. The gala.” I cleared my throat. “You and Sabrina got into it?”
Her face didn’t change much. “Something like that.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because there was nothing to tell you,” she said like it was obvious. “She was inconsequential. Drunk. I handled her. You didn’t need to be at your own event, dealing with that.”
“I appreciate that.” And I did. “But going forward. We don't get to keep things from each other that touch us both. I don’t need you holding things that touch you so I don’t have to look at them. Anything that hits on you, I want to know it hit. Even if you’ve already handled it. Especially then.”
“Okay.”
“Are you saying okay because you mean okay, or because you want me to stop talking.”
