Page 52 of Going the Distance
“I’m not walking out on you.” I heard the strain in his voice as he tried to keep it calm and cool and collected. It made me wince. “I told you—I’ll be back soon. I know this isn’t exactly…ideal…she’s in her car, upset, and she needs me. She’s crying, Rach. I’m not leaving her like that.”
“No, but you’re leavingme.” I’d never heard Rachel so snappy and blunt before. It made my stomach twist with guilt.
Lee didn’t try to deny it: “She’s my best friend, Rachel.”
“And I’m your girlfriend!”
“You knew exactly what kind of relationship I had with Elle when we got together. She’s a huge part of my life. Always has been. You knew all of that. And I’ve been neglecting her for months since I got together with you—”
“Are you seriously blaming me for the two of you drifting apart?” Her voice was getting borderline angry now. I cringed, hating myself. I shouldn’t have called him.
“No! Did I say that? No. I just meant, I’ve been putting you first for a long time, but right now, I need to put Elle first. I’m sorry if you can’t respect that, but—”
“Respect that? Lee, we just had sex, and now you’re running off to be with another girl! I know you guys are close, but this is just…Whatever you say, she’s always going to come first, and I…I don’t know if I can…”
Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit. Idefinitelyshould not have called.
Way to go, Elle, wrecking two relationships in one night!
Lee sighed tersely. “Rach, can we please not do this right now? Okay? I’m not going to leave her when she’s this upset. I love you, but this is my best friend we’re talking about. I’m sorry.”
I was sure that Lee had forgotten I was still on the line, or maybe he thought he’d hung up on me, because, from the rustling noises, it sounded like he’d put the cell phone in his pocket.
But I did hear, very clearly, Rachel crying, “Lee Flynn, don’t you dare!” and then the slamming of a car door. At that point, I punched the button to hang up, dropping my cell phone into my lap.
There was a thunderclap overhead, and it started to rain, hard and heavy.
Talk about pathetic fallacy,I thought dryly, choking out a laugh.
And I began to bawl even harder.
• • •
There was a rap on my window, and I jumped. For a moment, I thought it was Noah and he’d come to try and talk things through because he wasn’t going to let me go so easily after all.
But as my eyes focused on the figure outside the window, I realized that it was Lee, not Noah, outside my car. I couldn’t help it when my heart sank a little, any notion of a romantic declaration, Noah telling me what was going on, us fixing things, gone.
Lee had his arms hugged around himself, and he was bouncing on the balls of his feet, collar turned up against the rain. Not that it helped. He was already drenched.
I swept the used, snotty Kleenex off the passenger seat onto the floor and climbed over, letting Lee take the driver’s seat.
The first thing he did was lean in and hug me tight for a long time, letting me cry into his fancy black shirt and wrap my arms around his waist, underneath his coat. He didn’t ask how I was or what had happened. He just hugged me and stroked my hair. He was wet all over, and it seeped into my own clothes, making them damp, but I didn’t care. This was exactly what the breakup doctor ordered.
Maybe five or ten or twenty minutes later, I’d calmed down enough to talk.
“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have called you. I…I should’ve just gone home or called Dixon or Levi or something. I didn’t mean to make you and Rachel fight.”
Lee winced. “You heard that, huh?”
“You forgot to hang up. I thought you were coming back on the line to talk.”
“How much did you hear?”
I shifted my weight, pulling out of the hug to lean back in my seat, and grimaced. Lee just nodded with a grim sort of look on his face.
I opened my mouth to apologize again—one breakup was more than enough for one night, and Lee didn’t need to deal with my relationship troubles as well as his own. I’d been totally selfish to call him. But he clamped a hand over my mouth before I could utter so much as a syllable.
“Don’t. I’m not going to leave you sobbing in your car after a breakup and just console you for a couple of minutes over the phone.”
