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“Hello.”
The wind blows my hair around, and I tuck it behind my ears. “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you.”
We stare at each other. “Why?”
“I want to talk to you.”
“No, you don’t, Rici, you want to scream at me.”
“You can’t blame me for being angry. After the night we spent together, I wake up to that.”
I cross my arms in front of me. “I know, I’m sorry.” I sigh, disappointed in myself. “I don’t know what came over me.”
His eyes hold mine. “Can we get a drink?”
“I guess.” I gesture up the street, and he falls in line beside me. The two of us walk in silence until we get to a bar and restaurant.
We take a seat and the server comes over. “What would you like to drink?”
Rico gestures for me to order first.
“I’ll just have a mineral water, please?”
He frowns subtly. “I’ll have a Blue Label scotch, please.”
“Sure.” The server leaves us alone.
Rico’s eyes hold mine as he waits for me to speak… so I don’t.
“Well.” He opens his hands to me. “Start talking.”
I shrug.
“You obviously have things to say. Say them.”
This is it, the moment I know I have to be completely honest or I have to cut my losses and walk away. I can’t keep harboring this resentment toward him.
“You really hurt me when you left me in jail. It’s not something I can forget so easily. And it wasn’t in a lover kind of hurt, it was a humanity hurt kind.”
He drops his head, taking a moment to himself. “I thought we were friends,” I whisper.
“Bella, I couldn’t deal with you and the drug thing back then. My whole world had collapsed. I was battling many demons—too many to name.”
Empathy wins and I put my hand on top of his on the table. “Why didn’t you just talk to me?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why didn’t you call me when you had calmed down?”
“I was ashamed of the way I treated you.” He looks back up, and his eyes search mine. “For that, I’m truly sorry. I can’t turn back time. If I could, I would.”
“But you didn’t even call me when I got here. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I was letting you settle in for a week, and then I was going to accidently bump into you.” I frown. “But then I saw you on that date and I went…” His voice trails off. “Things haven’t gone to plan.”
We sit in silence for a moment, staring at each other. “You know, you’re a really bad driver when you’re angry,” I tell him.
