His voice was soft, his eyes searching mine with a look of uncertainty that I’d never seen from him. He lifted up an arm to show me a paper bag.
“I brought Chinese. I was hoping we could talk.”
I wasn’t surprised he was here. I knew my response to his dinner invitation was a bit curt. Rude even. Even via text he was astute enough to know that I was giving him the brush-off. Looking at him, standing in my lobby looking so tall and handsome, I had a hard time remembering why I thought that was a good idea to avoid him.
“How did you get my address?” I asked.
“April.”
I really needed to talk to my daughter about respecting people’s privacy.
“Is this guy bothering you, Miss Stone?” the doorman asked. It broke me out of my stupor.
“No, it’s fine Jimmy. Thank you for checking.”
“Come on up,” I told Reed, my tone weary.
He followed me to the elevator. We stood side by side in the little box as it carried us up to my floor. Neither of us spoke, but I could feel the tension between us. My mind was churning. Things had felt so good between us at Mountain Ridge, but now we were back in the real world. The world where Reed was a wealthy businessman, and I was a lowly alcohol and drug counselor with a minor criminal record and a sketchy past.
I let Reed into my apartment, and he looked around curiously. I tried to see my apartment through his eyes. It was small, neat as a pin, with a plain beige couch I’d picked up at a thrift store. The walls were the boring off white that they’d been when I’d moved in and somehow I’d never gotten around to putting up any pictures on the walls.
Seeing it through fresh eyes, I could see that it was kind of austere. Other than the framed picture on the side table of me and April that she’d given me for Christmas last year, there was no hint of who lived here. I wondered why I’d never noticed how bland and boring my apartment was. When I’d slipped and told Reed I was doing penance for the people I’d hurt, I hadn’t realized how much it was true everywhere in my life.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, his voice cautious.
“Sure.”
I wasn’t really hungry, but it seemed polite since he’d brought food. He followed me into the kitchen.
“What do you want to drink?” I asked. “I have water, diet coke, or orange juice.”
“Water is fine.”
I turned and started walking just as Reed opened a cabinet to look for plates. The cabinet door opened too quickly, and it hit me square in the face. I jumped back with a squeak, gripping my cheek.
“Oh crap! I’m so sorry, I didn’t know that would happen.” Reed looked appalled. “Are you okay?”
I shot him a wry look. “I see you’re back to trying to kill me.”
Reed
Iwondered what itmeant that whenever we were fighting this pull between us, we were accident prone? The universe was clearly telling us to be together. I reached out and stroked Erika’s cheek with my fingers. It was a little red from where the corner of the door had caught her, but nothing serious.
She leaned into my hand and our eyes met.