Chapter Twenty-Six
Gretchen
I took my third day off from work to strictly pamper myself, spending most of the day lying out in the sun and reading a book. It was relaxing, but there was something hollow inside of me as I finished reading the last book and thought about things with Christian. It was enough to have me calling him up that night.
“Hey,” he said warmly when he answered the phone. “How's the solo day going?”
I sighed and shook my head. “To be honest, I miss you,” I said plaintively.
“Aw, baby,” he said. “What are you doing right now?”
“Curled up on the couch trying to watch some TV. Thinking about ordering a pizza or something for dinner, but not sure what I want.”
He laughed. “That sounds nice,” he said.
“What are you up to?” I asked.
I could almost hear his shrug over the phone. “Not much,” he admitted. “I went out with Mark and some of his friends, but they've all paired off, and I'm just sitting here now. It's kind of weird to go to a bar when you're not with someone, and you're not trying to take someone home.”
I laughed. “I can only imagine,” I said. Then, I blurted out, “Do you want to come over?”
“Are you sure?” Christian asked teasingly. “Or would that interrupt your personal day?”
“I've had enough of that by now,” I admitted. “I'd like to see you.”
“I'll be over in a minute,” he said.
In the end, we didn't have sex, but we did watch a couple of great movies and ate our way through most of a pizza. We passed out together on the couch, so I counted that as a success. At some point in the night, Christian must have woken up and moved us upstairs, because I woke up in my bed, with him spooning me. I shifted away from him and made a couple soft, sleepy noises.
“Good morning,” he said into the nape of my neck.
I hummed in response. “Thanks for coming over,” I said quietly.
“Thanks for having me over,” he retorted. “I needed this.”
I laughed. “We just saw one another the day before yesterday,” I reminded him. “And it's not like we had sex or anything like that last night.”
“No,” he agreed. “But, I can't stop thinking about the whole thing with Jeff,” he finally admitted. “I know I shouldn’t, but the guy clearly wasn't happy to see me. I should just let bygones be bygones.”
“He's your brother,” I reminded him quietly. “You can't just let bygones be bygones.”
He sighed. “I know.” He shook his head. “The thing is, I would never even be considering working things out with him if it weren't for you,” he admitted. “I feel like this is kind of silly, but I feel like I've honestly become a better person since I've known you, Gretchen. In so many ways. You were telling me the other day about how you think I'm a good person? I don't think I was, but maybe I'm starting to become one.”
“You can't just become a good person,” I said sagely. “You were always a good person, there underneath. Maybe you did some not-so-good things, but that doesn't mean that you were ever not a good person underneath.”
He sighed. “You have too much faith in me,” he told me.
“And you should make things right with your brother,” I said.
“I don't even know where he's staying,” Christian protested. “How am I supposed to find him? This island isn't exactly tiny.”
“In order to run into us the other day on the beach, he must be staying in one of the hotels near there,” I pointed out.
“Or at an Airbnb or something like that,” he reminded me.
“Start with the hotels, and if you can't find him, then we'll start broadening our search,” I said firmly. I sighed and rolled out of bed; no matter how comfortable it was, unfortunately, I couldn't stay there for the whole day. “I wish I could spend the whole day in bed with you, but I do have to get into work today, I've taken enough time off already.” Christian sighed, starting to get out of bed as well, but I put a hand on his shoulder. “I'm not kicking you out; you can stay as long as you want to.”
He fell back against the sheets, breathing in deeply. “You sure?” he asked, even as he pulled the blankets up around himself.
“I'm sure,” I said, smiling sweetly down at him. I leaned in to drop a kiss to his cheek. “I'll see you later, okay? Lock up when you leave.”
“Okay.”
When I got to work, I was in pretty good spirits. “Somebody had a good Christmas,” Mina said, coming into my shop and taking in my smile.
I grinned at her. “As a matter of fact, I did,” I told her. “A really good Christmas.”
“Chatted with your family?” she asked.
“Of course!”
“And saw Christian a few times?”
I shrugged. “Of course,” I said. I paused, biting my lower lip. “It's been good.”
Mina sighed. “I know that look,” she said, shaking her head.
“What look?” I asked defensively.
“That look,” Mina said, waving a hand at my face. “You look guilty. And you know what I think that means? I think that means that you're starting to forget the fact that he's going back to New York in, like, a week. Maybe two at the most.”
“He would have told me if he was,” I protested.
“You'd like to think so,” Mina agreed.
“Have you read something in one of your magazines?” I asked softly, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.
“No,” Mina said. “Although the fact that you even feel the need to ask…”
“Then maybe he's not leaving,” I said stubbornly.
Mina sighed and came forward, catching my hands between hers. “You know that he has to leave at some point,” she reminded me. “There's no way around that. And I don't want to see you get hurt, but I'm afraid that that is exactly what's going to happen.” She sighed. “Do you remember what happened the last time you fell in love with a guy?”
I grimaced. “Mina-”
“No, don't you Mina me,” she said, shaking her head. “I'm always on your side, and if he leaves and goes back to New York, I'm going to be there for you with ice cream and Chinese takeout food and stupid movies. But at the same time, you can't just hide away in your little bubble and insist that it's never going to exist. That's-”
“Mina,” I interrupted firmly, finally succeeding in halting her litany. I sighed. “Mina, I know he's going back to New York,” I said. “But we had a great time over the holiday, and I'm trying to take a leaf out of your book. You told me to just have fun with this, with whatever it was. I'm trying very hard to do that. I'm trying very hard to enjoy this.”
Mina shook her head, looking pained. “Just-”
“Mina, he likes me,” I interrupted. “He does. And I'm not saying that he's going to take me back to New York with him, he couldn't do that, I know that. But all the same, I want to enjoy this. So, please.”
“Okay,” Mina said, miming zipping her lips.
“So, how was your Christmas anyway?”
Mina grimaced and flopped into one of the waiting room chairs. “Trust me,” she said dramatically, “you don't even want to know.”