November 9: A Novel(64)
I hope not.
He kisses me on the cheek and waits for me to climb inside his car.
Hands grasp my shoulders from behind and Glenn’s face appears next to mine from the backseat. “I promise, too,” he says, giving me a loud smack on the cheek.
As we pull out of the parking lot, I stare out my window because I don’t want the three of them to see the tears in my eyes.
Because yes, hearing Theodore insult me didn’t only hurt my feelings—it was easily one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. But knowing these three defended me without a second thought almost makes the insult worth it.
Ben
It’s quiet after we drop Glenn and Amber off for at least a solid mile. She’s been staring out the window the entire drive and I wish she would look at me. I know what I put her through last year hurt her more than I can probably imagine, and I hope she realizes that I’m going to make it right. If it takes me the rest of my life, I’ll make it right. I reach over and grab her hand.
“I need to apologize,” I say to her. “I shouldn’t have said those things—”
She shakes her head, silently interrupting me. “Don’t take it back. I thought it was admirable that you were honest with Theodore. Most men would be too chicken to say anything and would just steal the girl behind their friend’s back.”
She has no idea what I even feel bad about.
“I wasn’t apologizing for that. I’m apologizing because I should have never said I was in love with you out loud like that, when the words weren’t spoken directly to you. You deserve more than a secondhand I love you.”
She regards me silently, but then she looks out her window again. I look back at the road, and then steal another glance in her direction. I can see her cheek lift in a smile as she squeezes my hand. “Maybe if the explaining and groveling go well tonight, you can give the I love you another shot before you cook me breakfast tomorrow.”
I smile, because I know without a doubt the groveling and breakfast will be a piece of cake.
It’s the explaining that I’m dreading. We still have at least a fifteen-minute drive, so I decide to go ahead and get started.
“I moved out right after Christmas last year. Ian and I let Jordyn and Oliver have the house.”
I can feel the tensing of her hand in mine just at the mention of Jordyn’s name. I hate that. I hate that I put that there and I hate that it’s always going to be in the back of her head, for the rest of our lives. Because whether she wants it or not, Jordyn is Oliver’s mother and Oliver is like a son to me. They’ll always be in my life, no matter what.
“Would you believe me if I told you things are great with us? With me and Jordyn?”
She gives me a sidelong glance. “Great in what way?”
I pull my hand from hers and grip the steering wheel so that I can squeeze the tension from my jaw with my other hand.
“I want you to hear me out before you speak up, okay? Because I might say some things you don’t want to hear, but I need you to hear them.”
She nods softly, so I inhale an encouraging breath. “Two years ago . . . when I made love to you . . . I gave everything to you. Heart and soul. But then that night when you made the choice to go an entire year without seeing me again, I couldn’t understand what had happened. I didn’t understand how I could have felt what I felt, when you felt nothing. And it f*cking hurt, Fallon. You left and I was pissed and I can’t even tell you how hard those next few months were. I wasn’t just grieving Kyle’s death, I was grieving the loss of you.”
I stare straight ahead because I don’t want to see what my words are doing to her. “When Oliver was born, it was the first time I felt happy since the moment you showed up unannounced at my front door. And it was the first time Jordyn smiled since Kyle died. So for the next few months, we spent every minute together with Oliver. Because he was the only bright spot in either of our lives. And when two people both love someone as much as we love him, it creates this bond that I can’t even explain. Over the next few months, she and Oliver became the things that filled the massive voids that you and Kyle had left in my heart. And I guess in a way, I filled that void that Kyle had left in her heart. When things progressed between us, I don’t even know if either of us gave it a prior thought before it happened. But it happened, and no one was there to tell me that I might regret it one day.
“I mean . . . there was even a part of me that believed you would be happy for me when we met up the following November. Because I thought maybe that’s what you wanted, was for me to move on and stop holding on to what you viewed as this fictionalized relationship we created when we were eighteen.
“But then when I showed up that day . . . the last thing I expected was for you to be hurt like that. And the second you figured out that I had been seeing Jordyn, I could see in your eyes how much you really did love me and it was one of the worst moments of my life, Fallon. One of the worst f*cking moments, and I can still feel the wounds your tears left in my chest every time I breathe.”
I grip the steering wheel and blow out a steady breath. “As soon as Jordyn got home that night, she could see the heartache on my face. And she knew she wasn’t the girl who put it there. And surprisingly, she wasn’t that upset by it. We talked about it for probably two hours straight. About how I felt about you and about how she felt about Kyle and how we knew we were hurting ourselves by maintaining a relationship that would never equal what we’d both had with other people in the past. So we ended it. That day. I moved my stuff out of her room that night and back into mine until I was able to find a new place.”