Page 30 of Justified Lies

Lianna had been dodging Gabe all week to avoid talking about the “incident.” Doing so had taken a bit of planning acrobatics. The week without contact wasn’t for lack of trying on Gabe’s part. He called her on Sunday evening to tell her about Justine Starks. Then again on his way to work Monday. His message was brief and business like.“Didn’t see you at drop off. Just making sure you downloaded that security app. Let me know if you need help with it.” That did at least prompt her to finally download the alert app on her cell phone.

On Wednesday night it was a text.

Hope everything is okay?

On Thursday she replied.

All good in the hood. Thanks for asking. No need to drive Harris to football.

Now here she sat, feeling triumphant with five days of avoidance under her belt. Well, that was until his latest textmessage an hour ago. The one that prompted an urgent bubble bath. It simply said,We should talk. You free?

“I get the feeling you’re holding out on us.” Isabela continued to push, her attention now fully on their conversation.

“There’s nothing to tell. We kissed, now I haven’t seen him.”

Lianna had called her three best friends shortly after Gabe left last Sunday to confess her R-rated kiss. They made her go over every single second of the encounter, in detail, so there was no point in rehashing it now.

“Are you telling me he hasn’t tried to contact you all week? He hasn’t called once?” Isabela wore a disbelieving frown.

“I didn’t say that,” Lianna admitted, feeling silly caught in her own lie.

“You’re avoiding him,” Sammie correctly guessed.

“Of course, I’m avoiding him!” Lianna defended herself.

“Oh, Lianna, talk to the man. He’s probably just as confused and frazzled about the whole thing as you are.” Maisy added.

“I doubt it … nothing fazes him.”

When she received three glares in response she quickly added, “But okay, I’ll talk to him, soon.”

Lianna knew she couldn’t avoid Gabe forever, but right now she was too fragile to face him. She needed time to corral her emotions, to gain enough emotional indifference to plaster on a brave face when they finally had their confrontation. Problem was, she didn’t know how much time that would take.

Lianna thought about the kiss at least twenty-three hours of every day since it happened. Her body longed to pick up where they left off, but her brain was scrambled. She was scared, weary, and optimistic all at once. That kiss had turned her world upside down. What if it hadn’t affected Gabe the same way?

By the time the women said their goodbyes Lianna felt significantly better. Chatting with these women always made her feel that way. They were her therapy.

Placing her phone on the bathmat, she retreated into the tub and sank deeper into the now lukewarm water. The tension in her shoulders was fading away, and Lianna allowed herself to hope that whoever had been hassling her had lost interest. A week without any unusual occurrences had to mean they moved on.

Her eyes sprang open when once again she was interrupted by her ringtone.You’ve got to be kidding me. Dripping water onto the floor, she reached out and grabbed the phone, hastily accepting the call.

“Hello.”

“Lianna, thank God you are home. I’m so sorry to ask you this but is there any way you can come over and stay with the girls?” It was her sister-in-law Nicki and she sounded frantic.

“What happened?” Lianna asked, the goosebumps on her arms not solely from the cooling water.

“It’s Darren. I just got a call from the pub. Somehow, he ended up there and I either have to pick him up or they’re calling for a drunk tank.”

“Oh, no,” said Lianna, confused because she had never witnessed Darren take a sip of alcohol before.

“The girls are asleep, but I don’t feel comfortable leaving them here alone.” Nicki sounded moments away from tears.

“Of course. I was just finishing up a bath. Let me throw on some clothes and I’ll be right over.” Lianna hung up the phone and was too flustered to care that her relaxing night was over.

****

Lianna was only at her brother-in-law’s home for about twenty minutes when she heard the door chime. Fortunately, there hadn’t been a peep from upstairs where the twins were fastasleep. Nicki came into view first—she appeared exhausted, in every possible way.

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