Page 42 of Loving Taylor
Any doubt that I still only wanted Taylor was confirmed when a stunning brunette cornered me with an offer and a seductive smile. She held no interest and I disentangled myself from the situation to make a swift exit.
I was biding my time until Taylor arrived.
"Taylor's not coming," Slater said when he came to stand beside me. "I need to go and pick up Jordan."
I digested the information with an uneasy feeling in my stomach.
She was at it again. Doing the unexpected. Why couldn't she just do things the way other girls did? Was it the fact that she wasn't like other girls that held my attention? Like a shiny new toy.
"Sure." I gave him a brief nod.
"I won't be long," he assured me before he left me standing, wondering what my next move was going to be.
She wasn't going to come to me so that left me with only one course of action and that was to go to her.
I waited until Slater came back with Jordan before I put my half-empty beer down on the first available surface and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Slater asked as I approached where he was standing with Jordan. She gave me a disapproving look, which left me with no doubt that she knew there was trouble between Taylor and me.
"Out," was my reply. I didn't want to go into details of where because then there might be a reason to explain why and I didn't want to talk about it.
The drive to her dorm was quick and before I knew it I was standing outside the door to her room. I didn't allow my unsettledness to delay me. I knocked gently and waited, shoving my hands into the front pockets of my jeans.
She opened the door a few moments later. Why had she not asked who it was? I could have been an axe-wielding murderer. She was dressed in an old pair of sweats and an oversized shirt that looked a couple of sizes too big for her. It even had a few well-worn holes. My anger was momentarily suspended by the sight of her.
She looked surprised to see me.
"I could have been a rapist or a murderer and you just opened the door without asking who it is," I told her with a frown.
It reminded me of her naivety.
"If it's my time to go it's my time to go," she replied flippantly.
"That is a strange outlook to have." I assessed her features to tell if she was mad at me.
She shrugged.
"Aren't you going to invite me in?" I asked, looking briefly past her but she was alone. It wasn't like I was expecting her to be with someone else.
"Are you going to rape or murder me?" she asked with a mischievous sparkle in her eye that made it difficult to stay angry with her.
"Not tonight," I shot back. She let me in and closed the door behind me. The room was small and I took in the nervous way her hands soothed over her shirt.
"Why are you here?" She was getting straight to the point. She tucked her hair behind her ear. I studied her, trying to figure what to say. Her teeth bit into her bottom lip. I had to yank my concentration back from thoughts of kissing her.
"I was expecting you to come to the party with Jordan. I wanted to talk to you."
"So when I didn't show, you came here?"
"Yes." I nodded.
Her reception was frosty. She wasn't going to make this easy. But I liked a challenge and I wasn't going to back down.
Yeah, I wasn't perfect. I had more issues than most. There were so many reasons for me to let things go and walk away but I couldn't. Like I had said to Slater, I wasn't ready yet.
"So talk," she said, crossing her arms, confirming she was not happy with what had happened. Was she angry that I had left her without a word in the janitor's closet? Or was she angry that I had walked away when she had been with the blond stranger? Or was she angry I hadn't called her back?
I pushed my tongue against my lip ring as I studied her, trying to decide what to say. This wasn't a familiar situation, needless to say I didn't do a lot of apologizing, but here I was ready to take responsibility for my actions.
"I wanted to apologize for the other day," I began. There, I had said it. My words took her by surprise. Her eyes widened as they held mine.
