Be Good A New Adult Romance (RE12)(11)

He nodded but didn’t say anything else. It was weird. Half of me expected him to show me to the door and thank me for coming while he kicked me out.

He gave me a kiss on the cheek instead.

“Now you can understand why I have a flaw list. And why it’s extremely long.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Brett said matter-of-factly. When our eyes met, I felt like he was trying to look into my soul. “I love your flaws. They make you interesting and challenging. Of course, I’ve only heard a dozen of them so far but I’m looking forward to discovering the rest.”

“Are you serious?”

He nodded then gave me a soft kiss. “I’m very serious about you,” he whispered.

“You really love my flaws?”

He nodded and placed his hand on my cheek. “Haven’t you figured out that I love everything about you? I just wish you’d let me love you.”

I could feel tears streaming down my cheeks again.

“Please don’t cry,” Brett said softly as he brushed the tears from my face.

“I may have slept with a lot of guys but this relationship stuff is all new to me.”

Brett nodded. “I know. It’s okay. That’s why I want to take things slowly. There’s no rush. We’ve got the rest of our lives to figure things out.”

I had never planned further than tomorrow and Brett was talking about the rest of our lives. It seemed crazy and scary as hell but it also sounded pretty nice.



***



Brett had a huge flat screen television that seemed to take up an entire wall.

“I guess you really like TV,” I joked.

He shrugged. “I mostly watch movies.” He pointed to a DVD collection. “Here are the new additions to my collection.”

The new additions were all of my favorite movies. Brett had remembered my Top Ten favorite movies from when we were in the hotel in Phoenix after our first time together. He made sure he added every movie to his collection.

“What would you like to watch?” Brett asked.

“Why don’t you pick?”

He grabbed Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. “I haven’t seen this one yet. And it comes highly recommended.”

I had seen the movie several hundred times but Brett seemed to be enthusiastic about the choice. I was more interested in the possibility of cuddling on the couch, which is exactly what we did.

Brett held my hand and softly caressed my fingers and arm but he didn’t go any further. He kept his word about taking this slow. The only problem was that my body wasn’t used to slow. I had been conditioned to getting busy on living room couches from the time I hit puberty. My teen years were marked by my seeing only the first half of dozens of movies.

But there was no getting busy with Brett. At least not this weekend. He had made that extremely clear. The more time I spent with him, though, the less I thought about seducing him. I actually liked talking with him and doing things other than having sex. Spending time with a guy and not having sex never occurred to me before Brett came into my life. How sad is that?

Even though I was tired after the movie ended, I wasn’t ready for our evening together to end. So, I was disappointed when Brett mentioned turning in for the night.

“Can I see your bedroom?” I blurted as we both stood.

Brett arched his eyebrows.

I shook my head. “I don’t mean that,” I said quickly. “I just want to see what it looks like.”

He looked a little uncomfortable and that made me want to see it even more.

“Isn’t your laptop in your bedroom? That’s the reason you brought me here, isn’t it? To prove that you had my bikini shot on your laptop? That and to get your Pearl Jam tee shirt back, which I’m keeping by the way.”

“I figured I’d lost the shirt for good. Maybe I’ll show you my laptop tomorrow.”

I wasn’t use to not getting my way with guys but Brett was a tough nut to crack. I decided to bring out the heavy artillery.

“Please,” I said as sweetly as I could manage and then batted my eyelashes at him.

I could see him gulp. After a moment, he said, “You’re not going to give up until I show you, are you?”

I shook my head.

“Okay,” he finally agreed.



***



His bedroom was painted burgundy and the furniture was heavy dark wood. It looked expensive.

“This is nice.” I looked around. “I like the artwork you selected.” He had picked several Gustav Klimt prints. My parents were fans of his work, so I was familiar with it.

Then I saw a framed photo of Brett and Sweater Vest sitting on his nightstand. I froze. I could feel my cold heart sink to the floor. Actually, it didn’t sink; it was more like my cold heart dropped like a rock and cracked into pieces.

I could feel my legs moving over to the photo and I couldn’t stop them. I stood inches from it just staring at it. They looked so happy together. And cute. They really had been the perfect couple.

I could feel Brett step up behind me. “I’m sorry. I should have put that away. I didn’t know you were going to come in here.”

“Do you still love her?” I managed to say.

“I don’t know.”

At least he was honest. I turned to face him. His eyes were getting wet. “Let me see your laptop,” I demanded. He wiped at a tear that had escaped down his cheek.

“I want to see your laptop,” I insisted.

He went over to the small desk in the corner of his room and powered on the laptop. We both stood in front of it waiting for it to start.

When it was finally operational, he played around with it until a slideshow popped up that I assumed acted as a screensaver. The first photo was of me but it wasn’t a bikini shot. It was one taken at the wedding of me posing with my small bridesmaid’s bouquet. That made me smile for about five seconds until I saw the rest of the slideshow.

They were all photos of Sweater Vest. Or Brett and Sweater Vest. Random shots from college, homecoming, graduation. There had to be twenty different shots. Then it was back to my lone photo.

“I haven’t had time to change the slideshow photos,” Brett said half-heartedly. I knew he worked long hours and that was probably half true but I also knew enough about Brett to realize he was the type of person, who made time to do the things he wanted to do.

“I thought I wasn’t a rebound girl.” I knew I wasn’t being nice but at the moment I was too hurt to stop myself.

“I told you you’re not and I meant it.”

“That’s not what it looks like,” I spat. “Your room is filled with her. At least I understand now why you didn’t want me to see it. I’m going upstairs.”

I turned and marched out. I noticed Brett didn’t try to stop me. I ran as fast as I could to the guest bedroom and just got the door shut before I broke down sobbing. I had cried more since I’d been with Brett than I had in the previous ten years. Obviously one of the disadvantages of my withered heart coming back to life.

Most of me was glad Brett hadn’t followed me but a small part of wished he had. I wanted Prince Charming and the fairy tale but unfortunately, I didn’t recall there ever being any slutty Princesses.

I didn’t get much sleep. I debated packing up my stuff and leaving but I really didn’t want to. As angry and hurt as I was, I still wanted things to work out with Brett. I just didn’t know how I would ever compete with someone like Sweater Vest. Even if they weren’t still together, just the memory of what had been was probably better than me in some respects. It made me wonder why she let Brett go. They were both young. Maybe she realized she wasn’t ready to settle down. She still had a few wild oats to sew. Although, after seeing so many photos of her, she didn’t look like she had a wild bone in her body. She truly was the complete opposite of me in every way possible. That brought another lump to my throat. Maybe I really was just the rebound girl and Brett was just too much of a gentleman to admit it.



***



“So, where are we headed today?” I asked Brett as he pulled out of his driveway. Brett had been quiet all morning and I was trying everything I could to ease the uncomfortable tension between us.

“It’s a surprise.” He didn’t elaborate.

I wasn’t much for surprises. The few times my parents surprised me it was to send me to a new counselor and I always went alone. That was because I was the broken one who they believed needed fixing. What would have been a real surprise was if they ever volunteered to go to counseling with me.

Whenever a guy said he had a surprise for me, it was usually some kinky sex thing he wanted to try.

Yeah, I really didn’t like surprises.



***



When we arrived at Filoli, my jaw dropped. The magnificent gardens and estate home rivaled the most beautiful of Hollywood mansions.