Page 87 of Crazy About Love (All About Love)

Chapter 21

PRESENT DAY

I plop my butt down at the train station and wait for the ride home to chocolate and wine and a comfy bed, though I’m not sure how much sleep I’m going to get tonight. What a mess I’ve made of things. What a bogus Valentine’s Day. I lean back on the bench, staring up at the ceiling and contemplating going to Alec’s place instead of my own. But if he doesn’t show up tonight, then I’ll be beyond devastated and have to live with the image of him and Rian together, replaying over and over and over until I need rehab.

My phone goes off in my pocket, and I laugh at myself because I forgot to put it on silent when I set out after Alec and Rian. If I’d followed them instead of coming here, I’d have been found out in a second.

I squeeze my hand into my pocket, expecting a text from Liz letting me know whether she’s got a bun in the oven, but my heart skips three times when I see Alec’s picture and the message he’s sent me.

Redo.

He wants a redo, but of what? I want a handful of them. I want to rewind and relive and change my answers and give us all that time that’s now lost.

“Theresa?”

I swear I’m imagining it. I actually check my phone to see if I’ve accidentally called him and put him on speaker. Nope, he’s standing an arm’s length away, sliding his cell into his pocket. I fumble around in my head for the right words. The ones I’ve been aching to say to him all night are fighting to get off my tongue.

But in the end all I can manage is “W-why? How?”

He lets out a small chuckle. “Huh?”

My eyes shut and I shake my head. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” I take a breath and chance a look at him. His snow-bitten hair is disheveled, his jacket is unzipped enough for me to see his neck and his five o’clock shadow, and his dimple is showing slightly. He’s perfect.

“You’re perfect,” I whisper, then feel my face flush ten thousand degrees of red. But he doesn’t seem to have computed the hushed confession; his eyes are looking at me but his mind seems to be somewhere completely different. I see his fists move in the pockets of his jacket, and he shifts his weight from one foot to another.

“You’rehere,” he says, not acknowledging my word vomit. “What…what are you doing here?”

I stare down at my well-broken-in boots. “All sorts of crazy things.”

He chuckles in a confused sort of way but lets it go, taking the open seat next to me. His arm rests on the bench, one of his legs crossed over the other. He’s bouncing in his seat, as jittery as if he downed a triple-shot espresso before making his way here. He can’t seem to talk to me…me. The smell of someone else’s perfume mixed with Alec’s mouthwatering scent wafts in my direction, and I hate that this night happened. He’s probably nervous about telling me that he kissed another woman and that it may have blown whatever we had out of the water. His thumbs are twiddling, twiddling, and my phone is a deadweight in my hand, pulsing with the word “redo,” making my heart and head throb. Alec is saying something. His mouth is moving and he’s looking at me and I’m nodding like I understand. But then the words fall off my lips, interrupting whatever conversation he started.

“You left. You left me in the middle of the night and I think I know why.”

Whatever word Alec was on in his sentence floats off into oblivion, his green eyes becoming as wide as the moon.

“Why do you think I left?”

I throw him an arrogant look. “Men are notorious for not seeing the obvious signs women send.”

“Crying is a pretty clear-cut sign,” he argues with a tilt of his lips.

I jerk back, letting my mind float into the perfect night we shared, trying to see it from his perspective, but I’m completely unable to. My mind was so far from reality that night, so caught up in bliss.

I let out a small laugh. “Crying wasn’t a bad thing in that scenario.”

He drops the arm resting on the back of the bench and shifts to face me, his knees bumping into mine.

“When is crying a good thing?”

“Ever heard of a happy cry?”

“You werehysterical.”

“I washystericallyhappy.”

He shakes his head, amusement and confusion mixing in his eyes. “You had me thinking you regretted it before it was even over. I leftfor you.So you wouldn’t have to face me in the morning. Face your…mistake.”

I twist on the bench, pulling my leg up to press it flush against his thigh. Frustration tightens the corners of my mouth. “I was giving you a sign, Alec.”

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