Chapter 38

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Alex

“THAT WAS A LOT more fun than going to some boring old jazz club with them, don’t you think?” Rose asked as we lay in my bed with our naked bodies intertwined.

“You’re the birthday girl, so whatever you want…but yeah, I’m in total agreement, a lot more fun.”

She smiled and kissed my chest.

“Oh, speaking of your birthday.” I got out of bed and slipped on my boxers, walking over to the dresser drawer where I had her present. “This is for you.” I placed the box on the bed, and her emotion-filled eyes widened in surprise.

“Alex, really. You didn’t have to do this.” She seemed genuinely shocked and almost terrified that I had acknowledged her birthday with a present. She clearly wasn’t lying when she said she had never been in a real relationship with a guy before, if this was the way she acted when she received a present.

“Okay…maybe I did it because it’s your birthday, and I wanted to. And if it makes you feel any better, consider it an apology for being such a dick to you when we first met.”

“I-I…” Her voice shook along with her hands as she stared down at the box.

“Will you just open it, please?”

She nodded, still a little hesitant, like she was unwrapping a bomb instead of a present. She carefully removed the paper, and her eyes filled up with tears. Obviously that blue box from Tiffany’s was instantly recognizable to her. “Alex…why?”

“You didn’t see what it is. You may not even like it.”

She slowly lifted the lid and caught her breath when she gazed down at the earrings inside and tried to hold back a sob.

“If you don’t like them you can take them back...you don’t have to cry about it,” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.

She feverishly shook her head, wiping her tear-soaked face with the back of her hand. “No one…” She tried her hardest to pull it together. “No one has ever done anything like this for me before…they are absolutely beautiful.”

I knew what she meant by no one—no guy. I didn’t understand her. For someone who seemed to have their expectations set so high when it came to men, she sure didn’t expect much from them. Her hands were still trembling as she took the earrings out of the box and put them in her ears. She hopped out of bed and stood in front of the mirror, lifting her hair from her face to get a closer look at her ears.

“I love them.” Her voice faltered. As she turned back around, I couldn’t stop my eyes from moving up and down the perfection of her naked body. Moving closer, she stood over me and lowered her lips to mine. “Thank you so much,” she said as my hands moved up her back.

I pulled her down on the bed next to me, and we lay down together. With her back pressed against me, I drew her closer, feeling so at ease as her fingertips gently glided up and down my arm that was tightly wrapped around her.

“Alex,” she whispered.

“Hmm,” I replied, half asleep.

She turned around to face me, and I opened my eyes. “That day when we were stuck in the elevator playing icebreaker. Do you remember the doors came open before I could tell you what my lie was?”

“Yeah.” Sometimes, she’d come out with the most random things. I fought my tired eyes, willing myself to stay awake long enough to listen to what she had to say.

“I love Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I hate lemon meringue pie…and my biggest fear is having my heart broken.”

My ears perked up and my eyes opened a little wider.

“There, I said it.” She let out a relieved sigh.

“Why are you saying it now? Is that what you’re afraid is going to happen?”

She nodded and for the first time since I’d known her, she seemed so weak and vulnerable. “It’s just…I mean, I know we never established exactly how we’d classify what we have together. But…” She paused and let out a frustrated breath. “I don’t want to say the wrong thing because I don’t want to freak you out.”

“I’m not freaked out.”

“That’s because you don’t even know what I’m gonna say.”

“You feel like we’ve gotten past the point of casual and moved on to something more serious. So, if you’re asking me if I’ll ever break your heart, I don’t like to make promises I’m not a hundred percent sure I can’t keep.”

She looked away, and I placed my hand under her chin, redirecting her gaze back to me.

“The same way you can’t promise me you’ll never break mine. We can’t see the future.”

“I would never—”

I placed my finger over her lips to stop her. “Things can change in the blink of an eye. Things we never saw coming. I’d like to think that everything will be perfect, but I know firsthand sometimes life doesn’t work out that way.”

Her big brown eyes were full of emotion as she stared at me intently.

“But I will tell you this…I promise I’ll do everything I can to try and never hurt you, and I hope you’ll do the same.”

“I promise,” she whispered, tracing her finger over the scar just underneath my eye. The scar that would always be a reminder to me of just how much life could change.

My body tensed up, hoping she wouldn’t ask any questions about it. That was a part of my life I still wasn’t ready to share with her, just like my prior marriage was. So many things I had yet to reveal, and I knew if I was going to make good on my promise to her, I was going to have to tell her everything. But for now, I didn’t want to dwell on the past or worry about the future. Instead, I wanted to enjoy the present with my arms wrapped around this beautiful woman I once lived to hate and who now with each passing day, I found myself hating the thought of living without.