"I feel like she's a lot for me to handle." He gave me a small smile.
"Yeah, she is. And I'm pretty sure you knew that going into it."
He sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "I'm sorry about all this."
"There's nothing to apologize about. I hope that you two can work it out," I said, repeating the same thing I had said to Melissa. I grabbed my shoes off the ground and left as quickly as I could. When I closed the door behind me, it felt so final. Melissa and Tyler were the last parts of my old life I was holding on to. I didn't want to lose them too. But it wasn't my choice.
Eruption - Chapter 16
Tuesday
I wasn't sure when James would be back. He had probably thought I'd be spending most of the evening at Tyler and Melissa's. I flipped through the channels until I found a rerun of New Girl. The T.V. seemed to echo in the empty apartment. Melissa and I always used to watch this show together. I pulled a blanket onto my lap and tried to focus on the T.V. instead of my nagging thoughts. In the show, Winston was currently pulling a prank that was much too small. I had just gotten into the episode when the door to the apartment opened.
"Hey, baby," James said. He tossed his keys on the kitchen counter and draped his suit jacket over the back of one of the chairs.
"Hey," I looked over my shoulder and smiled at him as he walked toward me. "Did you have a good night?"
He lay down on the couch and put his head on my lap. "Yeah. What are we watching?" Instead of looking at the T.V., he was looking up at me.
I ran my fingers through his hair. "New Girl." James was horrible at watching T.V. It was like he didn't have the attention span for it. Which was strange because he could focus on other things for hours or even days. I knew he hadn't watched much T.V. growing up, so maybe he just never got used to it. Even though I wanted to see Winston's reaction to his prank going horribly wrong, I grabbed the remote to turn it off.
"No, I want to watch," James said and turned his face toward the T.V.
I looked over my shoulder toward the door. He hadn't brought any bags in or anything. He had said he had errands to run. Where had he been if he didn't bring anything back with him? "What were you up to tonight?"
"I just had some errands to run." He kept his eyes glued to the T.V. When the show went to commercial, he turned back toward me. "Was I right about Tyler and Melissa?"
"Yeah." I sighed. "Melissa wants me to stay away for awhile so they can figure things out."
"Why?"
"She's uncomfortable with my friendship with Tyler. It's stupid."
"Were you wearing this?" He lifted up the bottom of Tyler's old shirt.
"Yes." I shrugged my shoulders. That was the exact thing that had bothered Melissa.
He laughed. "You two do have a weird relationship."
"We do not."
"I'm not complaining. But I can see how it might make her uncomfortable."
I frowned. "Does it make you uncomfortable?"
"I'm confident in our relationship. Melissa and Tyler just started dating, so she's not confident in their relationship yet. Just different circumstances."
"But does it make you uncomfortable?"
"It used to. But I trust you. And I trust him. Besides, you do look good in baggy t-shirts." He pushed the fabric up my torso and kissed my hipbone.
I laughed.
"Although, you look even better with no shirt at all." He pushed the t-shirt up even farther, kissing the bottom of my ribcage.
"Except we agreed to no funny business until the wedding."
"About that. I was thinking...mouth stuff doesn't really count as sex, does it?"
