Page 141 of One Good Reason

“I never said you weren’t allowed to change your mind. Do I think your mind has changed in a matter of months? No, I don’t.”

“That’s still not addressing the situation at hand, Talitha,” he groaned like I was annoying him.

“What situation Harvey?” I all but yelled.

“Why would I end things?”

“I don’t know… shit!” I huffed and tossed my hands in the air. “Maybe because you don’t want anything long-term and if we get too deep into this, you’ll want to end it.”

“Is that what you think?”

“It’s what I know,” I retorted.

“Then I guess I’m wasting my time being here.” Paying me one last look, Law stalked out of the kitchen.

That shit did not go the way I expected it to. I was trying to make conversation and it ended with us arguing about some shit that we’d declared from the beginning. I didn’t know what to do so I sat on the island twiddling my thumbs until the sound of keys rattling snapped me out of my trance.

“I’m going to get going.”

“I thought we were spending the day together?”

“Yeah. So did I.” Law shook his head before walking out of the kitchen.

If he expected me to chase after him, he had another thing coming. I didn’t do anything that warranted him leaving. The sound of his truck door slamming had me releasing the breath that I was holding.

Clearly, I wasn’t understanding why the conversation pissed him off especially since nothing I said was a lie. We’d had this talk several times and were both in agreeance that neither of us wanted anything serious. We both had unresolved issues steaming from our past. I cared a great deal about Law. I felt something for him that I’d never felt for anyone outside of Papa Joe and Gema. Hell, the shit might have been stronger, but I wasn’t blind and knew that nothing would ever come of it.

He was with a woman for six years and wasn’t willing to give her anything. Why would I just up and assume that I was the prototype? Life wasn’t a movie or an urban novel, shit just didn’t work that way. I would be stupid to believe that it did.

Ten minutes after he left, I found myself missing him so much so that I hopped down from the counter and grabbed my phone. Dialing his number, I put it on speakerphone and placed it down on the counter.

“Howard,” he rasped when he picked up.

“Harvey. Are we fighting? We haven’t done that since New York.”

“Fighting, nawl. I left before it turned into one though.”

“Can you come back?”

“For what Talitha.”

Nibbling on my bottom lip, I huffed before admitting, “Because I miss you when you’re not near me.”

“Then don’t say or do stupid shit to make me leave, Talitha. I know what we’ve discussed… I partook in the conversation. Don’t put words in my mouth when you haven’t asked me if my feelings have changed.”

“Have they?”

“I guess you’ll never know.”

“Are you going to come back?”

“Maybe later. I need to clear my head.”

“That’s fair. I guess I’ll talk to you later.” I frowned.

“Yeah,” he replied before hanging up the phone.

CHAPTER 33

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