Page 81 of Grit
“It’s me.”
Cary fell silent.
Melissa walked to his office and leaned in the doorway. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He didn’t get up. He didn’t approach her. He crossed his arms over his chest and eyed her warily.
“I came to apologize.”
“For?”
Melissa took a deep breath. “First, for assuming that you’d ever abandon Abby or ignore her if something didn’t work out between us.”
He waited a long moment before he nodded. “Okay.”
“I know you wouldn’t do that. I know it, and so does she. That’s why she can be kind of a brat with you sometimes, because she knows that you’re not going to stop caring about her.”
Cary kept staring, but he didn’t move and his expression didn’t soften. “Okay.”
Bend. Just a little.
“And second, I want to apologize for…”
Why was this sohard? Stripping off her clothes and dancing naked down Main Street in Metlin would be easier than this.
“For?”
“For being afraid,” she said in a small voice. “You’re probably my best friend, Cary—when we’re not at each other’s throats because we’re fighting about something stupid—and the thought of changing that is terrifying. Because if…” She cleared her throat. “If I didn’t have you, I don’t know what I’d do.”
He unfolded his arms and leaned his elbows on his desk. The black outline of a dragon on his forearm was all she could look at. His muscles were flexing, and she wanted to touch them. Somehow, if she just touched him, she knew everything would feel better.
Cary asked, “So what are you saying?”
“I’m apologizing.”
“What do you want?”
You. She couldn’t say it. Not when she was so exposed.
He continued, “You want us to be friends again?Justfriends? Because I can’t lie, Melissa, that’s not what I want anymore, and I’m not saying I can’t get back there, but I kind of need some time.”
“I want…” She let out a breath. “I don’t know exactly what I want. I know I want you to not be angry with me. Can we pretend my freak-out and our argument last night didn’t happen and start from there?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I have to think about that.”
See? When you handed someone your heart, they could do whatever they wanted with it. Including crush it in the palm of their hand.
“Right.” Melissa nodded and turned to go. “Okay.”
Cary didn’t say anything. He let her walk to the door. But just as she was opening it, he came storming out of the office. He slammed one hand on the heavy metal door, smashed it shut, and flipped the dead bolt.
“I thought about it.”
Chapter Eighteen
He knewhow much it had taken for her to come to him like that and bare her soul. Because that was exactly what she’d done. She’d bared her soul. Or at least as much as Melissa was ever going to bare.
You’re my best friend…
