Page 48 of Mending Me

“What are you doing?” I asked, extending my hands out to take the flowers from him. He pulled them back before I could reach them and I gave him a look.

“Wait, I need to say something.” He took a quick breath and straightened his shoulders. He seemed nervous and if he wasn’t holding the flowers, it would have put me on edge. “Bailey Brown, will you be my girlfriend?”

My jaw dropped again and I gaped at him, stunned by his question but touched all the same.

“Didn’t we clear this up already? Isn’t that what you meant when you asked me to be your girl?” My bottom lip pouted as I looked at him. It was hard to know for sure because of his caramel colored skin, but I’m almost certain he was blushing.

“I mean, yeah, but,” he laughed nervously, looking down at his feet before bringing his warm brown eyes back to mine, “doing it over text didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel…official.” His eyes met mine and the way he was looking at me almost made me pass out. I extended my hand towards him again, this time grabbing his wrist and pulled him into a hug.

“Yes, Hank Martínez, I would love to be your girlfriend. Your girl. Your blondie. Whatever you wanna call me, I’ll be it.”

“You forgothermosa?1,” he purred into my ear, sending a shiver down my spine.This man and his Spanish. We kissed in the hallway before I pulled him inside and closed the door behind us.

A few hours and a whole pizza later, I was lying on the couch with my head on Hank’s lap as he twirled my hair between his fingers. He asked if we could watch13 Going on 30again and I happily agreed. I tried to not let the multiple rejection emails from the day get me down, but as the credits rolled, the slow creeping feeling of anxiety was back in my belly.

“Bailey?” He said my name and I turned to look up at him.

“Hmm?”

“Is something wrong?” He furrowed his brows at me and gave me a concerned look.

“Uhh no, why do you ask?” I lied. I felt embarrassed that no one wanted to give me a chance but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Because the last time we watched this movie you talked through the entire thing, quoting almost every line. You didn’t say anything this time.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t even noticed. “I just didn’t want to be annoying, I guess.”

“Hermosa?2,” he said, looking down at me, his lips pressed together in a line. “I can tell when something is wrong. Why won’t you tell me?”

I chewed my bottom lip and sat up to face him. I didn’t like being dishonest with him because I would want him to be honest with me. I sucked in a breath before exhaling deeply. “I just had a hard day is all. I’ve been trying to get a full time job doing some sort of event planning or something in hospitality, but no one is hiring. I got three rejection emails today alone. It just makes me feel like a failure.” I stared at my hands, unable to bring my eyes to meet his.

“You’re not a failure,” he stressed. “Hey, look at me.” His fingers came to my chin and pulled it up so I was forced to look at him. “You are not a failure, not even a little. You will find something and anyone who hires you will be so lucky, hermosa?3.”

I blew out a breath and pondered his words before speaking. I knew I was good at what I did, lots of people had told me as such several times at my last job. Shit, the reason I had any money nowadays was because old clients from the event hall tracked me down and asked me to organize private events for them. I loved throwing a good party, I just wished somewhere local would hire me to do it full time. The longing in my heart to start my own event planning business was strong, but I would need to save up the money before launching it on my own.

“I’m just having a down day I guess,” I confessed. Without speaking, he squeezed my hand and stood from the couch. He then walked into my bedroom and was gone for a few moments before I heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. When he came back out, his lips had curled into a caring smile and his eyes flickered with anticipation.

“What’s that look for? What are you doing?”

“Come here,” he urged, pulling me up from the couch and dragging me into my bathroom. I followed closely behind him, his strong hand wrapped around mine until we reached what hewanted to show me. When I saw it, I felt my eyes crinkle in the corners, touched by what he had done.

“You said when you were having a bad day, you liked to take a bath and read. You’re having a bad day, so I drew you a bath. If you want, I’ll read to you while you soak.” He motioned towards the bath that was now half full of piping hot water and then looked down at me, his lips pulled into a warm grin.

“You’ll read to me?” My voice trembled and was so small I didn’t even think he could hear me over the running water. Not only had he remembered what I liked to do on a hard day, but he also offered to read to me. I thought the flowers he brought me were sweet, but this was better.

He pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. An instant wave of safety and security flooded my body as I breathed him in. I nestled my nose into his chest as he flexed his arms, squeezing me a little tighter. “I’ll do whatever I need to do to make my girl happy, and if that includes reading to her, then that’s what I’ll do.” When he kissed me on the top of my head, I squeezed my thighs together and was happy he couldn’t see the big stupid smile that had spread across my face.

“The book I’m reading is out on my nightstand, can you grab it for me?” I asked, pointing to where the book was lying. He released me to go and grab it as I started to undress and climb into the tub. I caught him watching me as I slipped out of my bra and panties and slowly lowered myself into the hot water, wrapping my arms around my legs once I was safely inside. He set the book down on the bathroom counter and left the bathroom quickly before returning with a chair from the dining room table. He carefully set the chair next to the bathtub, grabbed my book off of the counter, and took a seat.

“What page are you on?” he asked, carelessly flipping through the pages.

“Careful, careful,” I said hastily, “there’s an old receipt in there that I’m using as a bookmark. That’s where I’m at.”

“An old receipt? Why don’t you get a proper bookmark?”

“I have one, I just don’t know where it is right now. I think it’s in another book and I had the receipt, so I’m just using that.”

“How many books are you reading right now?” He gave me an inquisitive look and I smirked.

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