Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
I stand up and step in front of her. “Do you really want to be there instead of here?”
“I have my own apartment, Reese,” she says, those arms uncurling, her hands settling on my chest.
“Okay. Would you rather be there than here? We can stay there.”
“We?”
“Yes, Cat. We. That’s what we’re doing, right?”
“We have been, but—”
“But? I can tell you that you don’t have to finish that sentence and I already don’t like it. Either we are or we aren’t.”
“Okay.”
“Okay? That’s passive for you.”
“It’s my new word. I do agreeable, and then when I’m not agreeable, you remember how agreeable I’ve been. Because when I’m not agreeable, I’m really not agreeable.”
My hands settle on the counter on either side of her. “You referenced how intense I was yesterday. You do know that I was not in normal form, right?”
“Of course I do. Like I said, you had the cameras on you. The pressure was intense.”
“Talk to me, Cat.”
“I—It’s stupid and I feel ridiculous.”
“Please tell me.”
“You took a call and just left me sitting there in the coffee shop, and I don’t know why, but it felt weird. Like you were hiding something. And no, I don’t know why. Because you’ve never been secretive before, but it felt secretive, though you have a right, and—”
“You’re right,” I say. “I got up because I didn’t want you to hear that conversation. It was my sister and it was family drama.”
“You think I can’t handle your family drama? You do remember mine, right?”
“Look,” I say, pushing off the counter and scrubbing the stubble on my jaw, “my parents are one big war zone. They always have been. They are the reason I’ve had no interest in relationships.”
“And yet I’m here.”
“Yes. You’re here. You’re different. You made me break my own rules, but I need you to know that I’m not going to be my father, and yes, I’ll elaborate on what I mean. I would just prefer to do it when I’m not about to leave for work.”
“Okay,” she says, “but know this: Nothing you tell me about your parents affects who you are to me.”
I cup her face and kiss her. “I hope not, because I’m not letting you go. One way or the other, we’re together this weekend. We can stay here or at your place.”
“We can stay here, but I do need to go home and check on things and get some things handled.”
“Why don’t we meet back here right before dinner and I’ll take you someplace nice? Or I can pick you up and bring your things here, if you have a bag.”
“Why don’t you just call me when you’re wrapping up?”
“That works. Do reservations at eight work for you?”
“Yes. Great.”
“In the meantime, breakfast.” I scoop her up and start walking, with the bedroom our destination breakfast location. I climb the steps and lay her on my bed then join her, settling on top of her.
That’s when my phone starts ringing in my pocket again. I ignore it and lean in to kiss Cat, but she presses her fingers to my lips. “Shouldn’t you get that?”
“No.” I remove her hand from my mouth and kiss her. She tasted like toothpaste earlier. Now she tastes like toothpaste and coffee, which is apparently exactly what I needed to have that morning wood return. My phone starts ringing again. Cat pushes me back. “What if it’s your family?”
“It is my family.”
“Then you take it. You deal with it. I’ll go take a shower.”
I roll off of her and onto my back. “Fuck.” I grab my phone and look at the number. “My sister.”
Cat leans over and kisses me. “I’m not going anywhere. Take care of them.”
She climbs off the bed, and I roll to watch her leave, not giving two shits that my phone stops ringing again. Right now, my mind has gone to a place it has never gone with any other woman: I’m falling in love with Cat. Hell, I probably already am in love with her. Either way, there’s no turning back. I wasn’t lying when I said she had me at “asshole.”
Cat
The moment I walk back into my apartment, I have knots in my belly. I love this apartment. It represents freedom and my decision to live my life, not the one my father designed for me. But it’s also a place where my mother forced seclusion on herself. It’s a place where I have forced seclusion on myself. Where alone felt better than being with anyone else.
No. Alone felt safer. At that time in my life, I think it was actually safer. I wasn’t in a place to have a relationship. I wasn’t sure that I would be ever again. But then came Reese. And oddly, his place feels more like freedom, while this place feels like a prison. It was my mother’s prison, the place she went to hide from my father, rather than just leaving him. It kills me to think of what she felt when she came here.