Page 5 of Blurred Love

I nod. “Okay, well, can I tell you about me?”

She doesn’t answer me, but at least she doesn’t get up and walk away, so I start to ramble. “I started working at Glaze around a month ago, and this is the second week since we’ve started with the truck.”

She crosses her legs, and I settle in. “Look, I regret what I said to your friend. I had a run-in with an ex this morning, and let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. When Colter stared at me for two hours, scowling, I thought he was judging me, and I tried to talk to him, but he just stared at me, and I lost my temper.”

Abby blows out a breath. “Colter has a traumatic brain injury.”

I swear she may as well have punched me in the face. Shocked, I shake my head side to side. “No… I didn’t know…”

Abby tilts her head to look at me. “Like I said, Colter is one of the good guys, and I don’t know what you said to him, but whatever it was, he didn’t deserve it.”

I grip my hands together in my lap. I can feel myself spiraling. I’m replaying everything I said in my head, and I feel sick to my stomach. I look at the path Colter walked down. “I need to talk to him.”

Abby shakes her head. “That’s not a good idea.”

I lean forward. “Abby, please. I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but I’m not a mean person. I let my morning affect how I treated Colter, and I need to apologize to him.”

She’s shaking her head the whole time. “See, I’m pretty sure Colter won’t want that. If anything, he’s going to want to know you’re okay because he’ll be worried about you and?—”

I point at myself. “Worried about me? He doesn’t even know me.”

She searches my face. “He doesn’t? Are you sure? Because I don’t know any other reason a man that is sensitive to light so badly it causes migraines would come out here to just hang out.”

I remember Colter putting on his sunglasses when the sun broke through the clouds, and I start to reexamine everything that happened over the last few hours. Maybe he wasn’t scowling at me. I mean, sure, he was watching me the whole time, but maybe he wasn’t scowling. Maybe he was squinting because even though there were clouds, he was protecting his eyes. Maybe it was desire not disgust that I saw flare in his eyes when he looked me up and down.

“Oh God!” I exclaim and put my head in my hands. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. I shouldn’t have said any of it.” I lift my head and plead with her in desperation. “Abby, please, you don’t owe me anything, but you have to help me make this right. Oh my gosh, he has to think I’m a horrible person.”

She shrugs. “Trust me, he doesn’t. He just thinks you’re like every other person that judges him for his TBI.”

I let my head fall back with a huff. “I wasn’t judging him, at least not like that. I need to fix this, Abby, please.”

She searches my face, and I hope she sees the sincerity and the overwhelming regret I’m feeling right now. “Please.”

She finally nods her head and pulls her phone out. “I’ll give you his number, but I need you to promise me one thing.”

I dig my phone out of my apron pocket. “Anything.”

She nods. “You can text him, but don’t call him. I don’t want you catching him off guard and making him even more uncomfortable. If he wants to talk to you, he’ll call you.”

At this point, I’ll promise her anything. “I promise. I’ll text him, and that’s it. I won’t call him unless he says I can.”

She still doesn’t seem completely sure about it, but after looking up his number on her phone, she recites it to me. I enter it into my phone and then repeat it to her to make sure I got it right.

I look at the window of the Glaze truck, and Teresa is hanging out of it, throwing her hands up in the air. I want to talk to Abby more, but I know I need to get back to work. I stand up. “Thank you, Abby. I really am sorry, but I want to thank you for talking to me about this. I’m going to fix it, and I’m going to apologize to him.”

She nods her head, but as I turn to walk away, she grabs my arm to stop me. Surprised, I look up at her. She shakes her head. “Poppy, whatever you do, just don’t hurt him… okay?”

I blink in surprise. “Hurt him? I couldn’t do that.”

She smiles softly at me. “I have a feeling that you could probably hurt him more than anyone.”

I feel the need to remind her. “Abby, I don’t know him. I didn’t even know his name until you told me what it was.”

She nods. “Yeah, I know, but something got him out of his cabin, and I have a feeling it was you.”

I just stare at her in surprise and wonder if there is any truth to what she’s thinking. “I promise, Abby, I won’t hurt him.”

She nods and sighs in relief before walking away.

---