Page 26 of Take My Heart
I’m not even sure I want a girl. Where would I find one in a town this size? I know everyone here, and out of all the girls my age, I don’t see myself marrying any of them. I’ve dated some of them and it didn’t work out. Now I’m dating girls younger than me, like Talia, and finding we have nothing in common.
About ten minutes later, Kate appears next to me.
‘Thanks for letting me use it.’ She hands me my phone.
‘Anytime.’
She heads back to her room.
‘Where are you going?’
She turns back. ‘I thought I’d take a nap.’
‘You said you weren’t tired.’
‘I’m not, but it’s better than .?.?.’ She looks down.
‘Better than what?’
‘Nothing. Forget it.’ She continues to her room.
‘Kate,’ I call out.
She appears from the hall. ‘Yeah?’
‘You want to talk about it?’
‘About what?’
‘About what happened today. If you don’t, you’ll just keep thinking about it. You’ll try to sleep, but your mind won’t let you.’
She walks over to me. ‘How do you know that?’
‘Because it happens to me. I’ve got a lot of shit going on and sometimes I think about it so much I can’t sleep. Drives me fucking crazy.’
She smiles a little. ‘Me too.’
I point to the couch. ‘Have a seat.’ I pick up my beer. ‘You want one?’
‘No, I’m good.’ She sits on the couch, watching as I drink my beer. ‘Do you have anything stronger?’
‘Vodka or whiskey?’ I ask, getting up from the chair.
‘Whiskey, please.’
Please.She’s so formal. I’ve never liked girls who are formal. They make me uncomfortable. I feel like they’re judging me. But for whatever reason, I don’t feel that way with Kate, probably because I’m not dating her.
‘Here.’ I hand her a shot glass of whiskey, then set the bottle on the table in front of her.
‘This is plenty,’ she says, sipping the whiskey.
I laugh. ‘That’s how you drink whiskey?’
‘Yeah. Why?’
‘It’s a shot. You down it all at once.’
She shakes her head. ‘That would give me a headache.’
