Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Promise me you’ll find love.
My eyes shot open. Those were the last words from her. Miri always loved making me promise to do things for her and holding me accountable. But this time was different. She wanted me to be happy and knew deep down that Brendan wasn’t the one to do that. She could always see he was a temporary fixture in my life. Looking back, I would’ve liked to see this as well because I probably wouldn’t have given him four years of my life.
My last words to her, the ones before she closed her eyes and waited for death to come, were “I promise I will.”
Yet another promise I’d made to her and wouldn’t be able to bring myself to break.
The ringtone on my phone shrilled, the sound echoing off the bathroom walls, startling me. I reached for a hand towel to dry my hands and then for my phone. Weston’s name appeared on my screen, and I froze. This wasn’t a text message but a phone call. He wanted to speak to me. My index finger hovered over the screen, waiting for me to make up my mind.
On what was surely the last grating sound, I finally swiped to answer. “Hello?”
“Hi, Antonia. It’s me, Weston.”
I smiled at the corniness and felt sort of giddy that he would introduce himself.
“Hey. What’s up?”
Weston sighed. “I didn’t want to go to bed without clearing the air.”
“Oh?”
“What happened with us tonight . . .” he started, and I felt my heart drop. In the lack of afterglow, thanks to me moving away from him right away, I wanted to tell him that we shouldn’t have done that, but instead I’d told him we couldn’t do it again for a while because I wasn’t ready to shut the door on him yet. Although I didn’t figure that out until after I’d said what I said.
Weston sighed again. “I know you’re going through the unthinkable right now, as well as having a recent breakup, but I wanted to be clear about how I feel. Tonight, I should’ve walked away, but I couldn’t. Mostly out of fear I would hurt you. Instead, I took a chance, knowing damn well the odds were not in my favor. I like you, Antonia. A lot. And I don’t plan to stop or go away until you tell me to take a hike.”
His words, while a bit all over the place, put a grin on my face and gave me a smidge of hope, longing, and desire, but I suspected that was a holdover from earlier.
“Weston, I like you, too, but my thoughts and feelings are jumbled right now. I can’t tell if the tears I want to cry now are because of Miri or because, while I should have regrets about what we did—”
“Antonia—”
“No, let me finish. I want to get this out while I have an ounce of courage in me. I don’t even know you, not really. I thought I knew Brendan after four years, and I was completely wrong about who he was when things got tough. You’ve stepped up when you didn’t have to. I don’t have regrets about what we did, but at the same time, I don’t know if it’s because I’m broken or because I’m falling for you.”
“Definitely the latter,” he said, laughing softly, trying to lighten the mood. After a pause, he said, “You can trust that I’m not going anywhere. I’m not Brendan. When things get tough, I don’t run. I fix porches and drive kids to tournaments and sit in hospital waiting rooms. That’s who I am. I’m not going to pressure you into anything. That’s not the type of person I am. But I will be there, basking in your presence, because while you may not see it right now, being near you is the missing piece to my life.”
Honest to goodness, that was probably the best compliment I’d ever received from a person, especially a man.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything, Antonia. They’re my words, and I mean every single one. From the moment I saw you, I knew you were going to be someone special in my life. By my side was how I saw you, us standing next to each other as we blaze a path through this world, and if there’s one thing I know about myself, it’s that when I set my mind to something, I usually achieve it.”
“You seem rather sure of yourself.”
Weston let out something that sounded like a cocky, self-assured chuckle.
“I’m sure of this,” he said. “The way we effortlessly connected. The way we fit together, how we didn’t fumble around each other. I’m patient. I’ll wait for you to catch up.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then you don’t, and I’m still your friend. I’m still the guy who will come fix porches and drive kids to tournaments and sit in hospital waiting rooms, because that’s what friends do.”