Page 67 of Enemies to French Kisses
“We’ve got the Dutch proposal?” Her eyes light up. “We’ve really got it?”
I toy with her just long enough, kicking at the bed leg and looking out the window.
“Tell me!”
“We’ve got it!” I raise my arms in a “V” for victory.
“Yes! We did it!” She throws her arms around my waist, the tube of the IV catching on my belt.
My arms drop naturally to hold her close to me, her head resting against the lower part of my chest. I run my fingers through her hair, her body warm against me, soft and comforting.
It’s time to tell her.
“Laura.”
She uncurls her arms from my waist and I miss the feeling of her already. It’s like a crevice is opening between us, despite all my efforts to build a bridge.
“We’re going to be working together a lot, aren’t we.” She says it as a statement.
I swallow and nod, feelings getting stuck in my throat.
“We are.”
“And about…” she wiggles her finger between us, “this…”
“This,” I wiggle my finger like she did. “I know what this is. I know what it is for me.”
She tilts her head to the side, her eyes narrowing. “You know, huh? Just what is it you know, exactly? Because I’ve been pretty confused about what you know or don’t know.”
This is it. I take in the deepest breath I’ve had in a week. “We are colleagues, not married, Laura—"
She closes her eyes and blows air out her lips. “Thank goodness.”
“But we’ve been more to each other than just that for this past week.”
“Because you hit your head.”
“Because…” This is the part I rehearsed. The part when I looked in the mirror and had all the right things to say about what she’s come to mean to me, and how I see the future opening before us in ways I never could have before she was at my side.
And now those words are all muddled into a single, insufficient word.
“Because…”
She speaks through clenched teeth. “Because you hit your head.”
“Yes,” I add quickly. “And because… the police!” That’s how this all started. “They were going to arrest you, and I couldn’t let them do that. Not how I felt—"
“You said all of that because of thepolice? You mean, youknew?”
“I was confused.” That part is true. “Everything blended. It wasn’t clear to me at first, except that you needed me.”
“Ineededyou?”
“And I needed you in those first days. I needed someone with me, and I wanted it to be you, that’s why my head—.”
“Youwantedit to be me?”
“Please stop repeating everything I say. When you say it, it sounds less sincere, but I mean this truthfully. I've been consciously making every effort to be open with you, to not hide. To share how I feel, what I’m thinking, even when it was hard or stung to say those things out loud not knowing how you felt in return. But ever since you said it to your brother, I’ve done my best—”
