Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
She pushes against my chest, and right at that moment, Mark and Bethany come over to us. “Hey guys, so we’re going to get out of here.”
“But—” Chrissy starts.
Bethany waves her off. “Is that okay? I mean, if you don’t want us to, we can stay, but Mark and I were talking about going over to the drive-in and catching the new action flick.”
Chrissy nods her head and looks at me. “Gabe… do you have something to say to Mark?”
She’s giving me that look and she doesn’t even have to explain what she wants from me. I turn to Mark and hold my hand out. “I’m sorry.”
Chrissy clears her throat, and I grunt. “Right. Well, I’m sorry for threatening you. Your job is safe.”
When I stop this time, Chrissy stomps her foot. “Gabriel.”
“Fine. I’m not going to kill you either.”
Mark starts to stutter, “Sure, boss. So, uh, we’re going to get out of here.” He nods at Chrissy. “It was nice meeting you, ma’am.”
He and Bethany walk away hand in hand, and Chrissy points to the tables. “Can we sit down for a minute?”
I walk behind her, and I have an uneasy pit in my stomach. This doesn’t feel right, and when we sit down, the way Chrissy is fidgeting makes me even more nervous. “Talk to me.”
She wraps her hands together and holds them on top of the table top. “We need to talk, Gabe. A serious conversation.” She looks around the bar at the people laughing, talking, and having a good time, and then she looks at me with a grimace on her face. “Maybe we should do this somewhere else.”
I’m too impatient for that. “Just tell me.”
She opens her mouth and then closes it again and shakes her head.
“Look, I know I probably went a little overboard. I shouldn’t have threatened Mark, but I wasn’t going to just fix you up with some guy that—”
She cuts me off. “Why not? Why couldn’t you just fix me up with a guy?”
I rest my elbows on the table and lean toward her. “Because I couldn’t. I want you safe.”
She rolls her eyes. “Safe? This was a double date that you were going to be at the whole entire time. How would I not be safe? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Chrissy, listen, you know how I am about you, and you can get mad at me all you want, but I can’t change who I am.”
“No, you listen to me, Gabe. Do you have any idea how it makes me feel that you were in a relationship? You were happy, and because of me, she broke it off with you. She broke your heart, and it was all my fault.”
I blurt out a laugh. “Broke my heart? Please, honey, we were fucking. That’s all that was, and it was three years ago.”
She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms over her chest. “We need… we need to think about the future, and if our relationship is going to hold you back from having a fulfilling relationship, then we need to fix that.”
I hold my hand up. ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is nonsense, Chrissy.”
She’s indignant and shakes her head. “It’s not nonsense. No woman in her right mind is going to be okay with you dropping them to save the day for me. No woman is going to be okay with you… with you sleeping in my bed!”
She yells the last part, and the people all around us stop talking and look at us. Chrissy’s face is bright red, and I should feel like an ass because I’m glad she just announced I slept in her bed. It will be all through town before the end of the day tomorrow.
She leans closer and starts to whisper. “Gabe, we can’t keep going on like this. It’s like you’ve put your life on hold for me, and that’s not right.”
I reach for her, and she pulls her hand back. “No, listen to me. Do you remember the first time I was supposed to be adopted and I ran away because I didn’t want to go?”
With my stomach in knots, I nod. I hate thinking about our past. Growing up for us was hard, but the fact I had Chrissy and my brother and foster brothers made it easier. Still, none of us want to think about our lives in the foster home.
“You promised me then that you wouldn’t let them take me. You promised me that you would always take care of me. You were twelve years old at the time, and thinking about it now, that was a huge promise to make as a twelve-year-old boy.”
I squeeze my fists. “What are you saying, Chrissy?”
She lifts her head, and I can see the quiver of her chin. “It means that it’s time I release you from your promise.”