Page 80 of Piece By Piece

I let go of her in time to place a hand over my heart. “You wound me!”

“Your ego can take the hit, I’m sure. Now, will you get off me to talk or would you rather keep me pinned so I can’t walk away?”

“Why would you walk away?” I ask, hoping damn well that she’s not planning on it.

She shrugs. “Judging how our last arguments went down, I’d say the chances are high one of us will storm off or flee at one point or another.”

I don’t indulge in teasing her about that. Not when I can still remember her rushing away from me and locking herself in the bathroom so vividly. I slowly get off her. “There won’t be any fleeing today,” I assure her. That’s a vicious cycle better broken sooner rather than later.

She straightens up, leaning against the head of the bed and watching me expectantly.

“I don’t know where to start,” I tell her honestly.

“Just don’t apologize again. I know you’re sorry. I knew that when you apologized, I knew it when you took care of me despite my asking for space, and I knew it every time you made a sweet gesture in the time since.”

“Don’t forget about the ticket to the exhibition,” I cut in, grinning. I’ve got a lot of faults, but I do know my girl. She shoves my shoulder.

“That counts as a sweet gesture. Anyway, I’m no longer mad at you. Sure, you knew what you were doing when you took drugs in here and it hurt a lot, but the rest was said and done in the heat of the moment. I know you didn’t mean it. Besides, it’s not like I didn’t do anything to provoke your anger. That’s why I wanted to come talk to you at the party.”

“I said such stupid things,” I try to start, protesting against her letting me off the hook, and nearly flinching as I recall what words left my mouth that night. Aliena stops me before I can go further down that road, though.

“I know you didn’t mean it,” she repeats slowly. “Stop beating yourself up about it. People make mistakes. We both did.”

I nod reluctantly, reaching out to take her hand. The urge to hold her is always right there. “Where does that leave us?” I ask.

“I don’t know. Last I checked, you don’t want a relationship, right? That didn’t change?” she asks, and I swear she almost looks hopeful as she searches my features for any indication of my reply.

Swallowing around the nervous lump in my throat, I say, “I think it did, Sweetheart. I think my view on all of that has been changing for a while. From the moment you started sleeping in my bed, I suppose.

“We could have had this talk a lot sooner if you’d given me any indication that you wanted something more from me. To me, you seemed even more hesitant to let things become serious than me, and I get it. With everything happening with your parents, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the right time to demand anything from you that might take energy.” Even more hesitantly, I add. “And I was a coward, hesitant to change the status quo despite how much I care about you.”

My words linger for a second before Aly replies. “I was scared. Am scared. I never had a relationship. You know all about my fear of leaning onto someone, never mind that I crossed that bridge a long time ago when it comes to you and it seems there’s no turning back, no matter how hard I try. I’m starting to think the risk might be worth it if we give this a fair shot.”

A slow, wide smile spreads over my face. I can feel it. “Yeah? You’d agree to being my girlfriend?”

She rolls her eyes, even as a smile of her own takes over her features. “Yes, Sebastian, I would gladly be your girlfriend.”

To say the looks on our friends’ faces are hilarious when Aliena and I walk into the private room hand in hand thefollowing weekend would be an understatement. Lily gapes, instantly asking, “When did this happen and why the hell did I not know?”

Andrew is a little more subtle, his gaze jumping between Aly and me before he blows out a breath and takes a long sip of his drink.

Mattheo simply smirks cockily, the bastard. “Look who finally came around. I must say, I was almost losing hope in you, Seb. After you ruined my knee, I was sure you’d man up and set to winning her over, but you persisted in being a little bitch. Now, here we are, months later.”

Aliena stumbles a step, her head whipping around to look at me. “Pardon me, you didwhatto his knee?”

“Oh, ups, you never mentioned that?” Mattheo drawls, feigning innocence. Dumbass doesn’t realize he’s making his knee look horribly kickable again. “You remember how I couldn’t dance with you on your birthday, Amo? Yeah, you have that one to thank.”

Before she can snap at me, I say, “He was the reason you got hurt. He should have made sure you got home safely that night.” That, at least, placates her a little. She smiles and shrugs.

“We are all just accepting that? I thought you guys couldn’t stand each other!” Lily protests.

“Your head is always in the clouds, my love. You’re the only one who thought that,” Andrew tells her. She glares at him before bringing her attention back to the girl holding my hand.

“You’ve been holding out on me! I always give you the dirty deets about my love life. You two have been screwing around behind my back and I don’t know a thing about it?”

Aliena laughs while Andrew has the courtesy to blush at the revelation that his sex life isn’t as private as he might’ve hoped. Before anyone can change the subject, Andrew seems to realize something that makes him jerk in his seat.

“Whoa, you want to know how Sebastian is in bed?” His gaze swivels to Aliena. “No.” Is all he tells her. I refrain from telling him she doesn’t listen to orders. He’ll realize that she does whatever she wants eventually.

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