My ears rang with my heartbeat as my vision blurred for a second.
“I should go,” I said slowly. “I just remembered that I have to work early.”
Watching her face fall was a knife through my heart. But I couldn’t carry on with this if she wanted something immediately, and I couldn’t give it to her.
Kissing her on the cheek, I murmured, “Goodnight.”
I left before I could take another look at her angelic face. My resolve had to be as tough as steel. Nobody was going to talk me into changing my path. I did not want a marriage or a child this year. It wasn’t in the plans, no matter how much I knew I loved that gorgeous girl.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
* Allie *
It seemed strange that Kellan left so suddenly, when I had assumed he would stay over again.
Lighting a lavender candle, I sat on the couch and concentrated for at least fifteen minutes, completely unable to think of what I might have done wrong.
Dale definitely liked me. Cheryl and I had gotten along quite well. She was a bit over the top about some things, but I didn’t have many female friends to compare her to. I was reasonably confident that I had been good company.
Sure, she seemed infatuated with her possessions, like her new dishes, jewelry, and specially imported lamps. I’d asked enough questions to seem genuinely interested.
The conversation between Dale and Kellan had seemed relaxed. Kellan has been in a good mood until he dropped me off at my apartment.
Had I made him feel pressured by inviting him upstairs?
He seemed extremely independent. Maybe he didn’t like other people’s expectations. But it had only been a suggestion.
On the other hand, perhaps this was just typical relationship awkwardness as we got to know each other.
Grabbing my journal, I wrote out all of the positive things that had happened today, and everything I could think of that I might need to work on.
***
Three days later, I was still filling several pages in my journal every night while figuring out what went wrong. I’d sent Kellan a few light, chatty texts, but he hadn’t responded.
I wasn’t going to let my very first relationship fade away so easily, especially since my entire body still tingled whenever I thought of him.
It was frustrating that this was the one time the manifesting wasn’t working. It was like the universe was teasing me by giving me the hottest man in the world, then taking him away.
Grabbing my phone, I called Christine. Once I explained the situation as thoroughly as I could, I paused so that she could think.
“Precisely how hot was the sex?” she asked. I should have put it on a video call so I could see her grinning at me like a lunatic.
“Otherworldly. I’m not discussing it further.”
“Okay.” I heard a shuffle. “I’m lying across my bed so that I can think better,” she explained.
“I just don’t understand why everything was going well, then he suddenly changed,” I said.
“You said that everything shifted after his brother’s barbecue?”
“Yes.”
“And he brought you there partly because he doesn’t like his brother’s wife?”
“Yes.”
“Well,” she said slowly, “What is it that he doesn’t like about her?”