Page 39 of Acceptance
“I know, but it’s easier for me to just call her the waitress.”
Chuckling, he shakes his head. “It was never like that. We just… spent time together.”
She pulls back and wipes her eyes before searching his face. “What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“You said women mean something to you when you take them to bed, but it doesn’t sound like she means anything to you.”
His eyes cast down to her knee as she shifts to face him again. “I was upset. You just surprised me when you slept with me and then dumped me. Then you showed up that night, took me to bed, and disappeared again before I woke up. Went back toschool like it was nothing and broke my fucking heart all over again.”
“It’s my fault.”
“Hailey—”
“I’m not angry, Gavin,” she says. “I thought I was going to be able to move on if we made a clean break, but there was nothing clean about it. And I was so wrong. It didn’t go according to my poorly thought-out plan.”
This feels like a trap. Something I can’t win.
“How did it go, then?”
Licking her lips, Hailey waits for him to look at her. “I don’t want to ruin whatever you have going on with the waitress.”
“Fuck the waitress. I mean, I was fucking the waitress, yes, but forget her.”
“Forget her?”
Nothing Gavin says comes out right. “It’s over with her. I already told her. After what happened last night, I couldn’t keep seeing her. Please, Hailey… Tell me what you mean.”
“It’s scary for me,” she whispers. “I don’t really do the whole feelings thing.”
“Please?” He hates how he begs, but he needs to know. Like he might die if she doesn’t tell him.
“I missed you,” she says as tears fall. “Damn it, it’s like I’m a fucking faucet these past twenty-four hours. I cry at everything I never would have, and I’m pretty sure I’d gone, like, seven years without crying like this.”
He laughs and reaches out to wipe a tear from her cheek. “I miss you, Hailey. Every fucking day. When you’re here, there’s no one else. It’s only you. That’s why I told Em—the waitress that it’s over.”
“Gavin, I…” Hailey pauses and swallows. “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you.”
If his heart could jump from his chest, grow wings, and fly to the heavens, it would right now. “Really?”
She nods and quietly asks, “Do you still love me?”
“More than the air I breathe.”
Her lips press against his, and he wraps his arms around her as though she might flee in fear. Panic and backtrack. He’ll be damned if he lets her.
She doesn’t try to run away, though, and it feels like a dream. A wonderful dream he’s been hoping would come true since he first met this frustrating and amazing woman.
“Gavin?”
Panting, he rests his forehead against hers. “Yeah?”
“Would it be okay if we just… took a nap? I’m still so tired.”
My poor girl.Brushing her hair from her face, he tucks it behind her ear. “As long as you promise to still be here when I wake up.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”