Page 11 of Tart
“What you aren’t telling me is why you fell on the fence. Though, I’m pretty sure I only need one guess.”
I sighed and leaned back in the chair again. “I was tired after a long day on my feet—”
“And you didn’t bring your crutches with you.”
“They wouldn’t have saved me,” I said quickly. “I knew I should have canceled the date, but I didn’t have his number.”
“Then, you discovered he’s your neighbor.”
“Imagine my surprise,” I added, playing her sarcasm card. “Good chat,” I said, standing.
She pointed at the chair like I was a child. “It’s not over.”
I sat again and rolled my eyes, remembering in the nick of time not to cross my legs. “I don’t have much else to say.”
She leaned over and folded her hands on the desk. “I think you do, but you don’t want to say it. You think you’ll just add to my already full plate.”
I pointed at her. “I will, which is why I haven’t said anything. It’s the same boring story.”
“Hasn’t seemed like the same story to me since at least February. What happened in February that made your leg so much worse?”
I rubbed my temple and bit my lip to keep from speaking while I thought my answer through.
“I’m not going to give you time to think of a workable lie, Amber.”
I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Fine, okay. I hurt it in February. It’s not healing the way it should.”
“How did you hurt it in February? I don’t remember it being here at work. Did you fall at home?”
How was I going to tell her the truth now without making her mad? I wasn’t. She was going to be angry, but I didn’t have much choice. She’d see through every lie I came up with and make me sit here until I was left with nothing but the truth.
“I got into an altercation one night. I thought the leg was okay, but I’m starting to think I probably did more damage to it than I originally thought.” That was such a lie. I already knew how much damage I did to it. I simply didn’t want to tell her the truth.
“You think? You can barely walk by the end of the day. What kind of altercation are we talking about here? You aren’t the argumentative type.”
“This was more of a self-defense type situation. See, I was dating this guy,” I started, and she stood, walking around the desk to squat next to me.
“And you needed to defend yourself against him? Who is he, and where do I find him?”
“I love you for always trying to protect me, Hay-Hay, but I didn’t tell you about this for a reason. You don’t need anything else to worry about.”
Her hard eye roll right in front of my face spoke volumes. “Listen, the Darla thing is over.”
“No, it’s not,” I said, shaking my head. “Not by a long shot. You have plenty to deal with when it comes to her nonsense. You don’t need to add mine to the mix.”
She growled at me in the way only she can. “Out with it. Now.”
I tossed up my hand. “Fine. I started dating this guy after the new year. I didn’t mention it because it wasn’t serious. He was from St. Paul, and we’d been on a few dates in January. I invited him to my apartment for dinner, right before Valentine’s Day.” Her mouth opened, but I held up my hand to quiet her. “My parents were at home. I wasn’t reckless or stupid about it, but it felt like the next step. He was a great guy when we first started dating.”
“Until he wasn’t.”
I pointed at her and grimaced. “Until he wasn’t. That night after dinner, he decided he wanted a few stolen kisses in the dark. When he was kissing me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what I had to do the next day, the answer was obvious. We weren’t a match. I politely told him it was time for the evening to end since I had an early morning, but he refused to get off me. I couldn’t get away from him, so I hit him in the balls with my knee, which was still in the brace.”
She sucked in air while she held my eyes. “Bet he didn’t like that.”
“Not even a little bit. I got away from him and demanded that he leave. That’s when he attacked me.”
“He attacked you,” she repeated, and I nodded. “He hurt your leg?”
