Page 50 of Make Her Mine
“You’re that now.” He hesitated. “What do you mean, we talked?”
Of course he wouldn’t remember our little conversation the night before! He played with my head; why not play with his a bit? “I came to your room last night to check on you, remember?”
“Um, sure.” He didn’t sound sure.
“And you told me how you’d wait for me. Did you mean that?” I asked playing with a lock of my hair, loving that I had the upper hand this time around.
“What else did I tell you?” he asked with a sigh. “And how long did you stay in the room with me? What did we do exactly?”
He had no clue! “You said you had the best dream ever, and that you said you loved me in that dream. And that I should stop making you chase me. By the way, that’s far from the truth, Brandon.”
“Then why’d you leave? Your cousin could find someone else. You didn’thaveto go. Youwantedto go,” he sounded upset.
My presence, or absence, really mattered to him! “I have some growing up to do before committing to you in any way. That’ll take a month or so. Can you wait for me?”
“Can I come get you for the weekends?” he asked.
“No, you cannot. I need a solid month, Brandon.” Darleen was right; if he kissed me, I’d be putty in the guy’s hands.
“Away from me?” He didn’t sound happy.
“Yes, away from you.” I didn’t want to get into thewhysof the situation, especially not on a public bus
“I don’t understand,” he supposed. “Why stay away for a month for us to be together, Ella? I need an explanation.”
“You won’t get one. This is personal, Brandon.” I bit my lower lip as I was getting increasingly uncomfortable. “You don’t need to know why.”
“That’s what people in relationships do, Ella. They let each other know where they’re going, why they’re going, and why the other can’t go with them,” he explained.
“We aren’t in a relationship, are we?”
“I want to have one with you. Admittedly I don’t recall last night’s exchange. Can we have one now? One that Iwillremember?” He paused to give me a chance to say something.
“I can’t have a relationship with you at this time, because I’m not ready yet.”
“And the magic time is a month?” he asked. “Why is that?”
“I’ve got my reasons.” I couldn’t believe people in relationships had to know so much about each other. “You probably wouldn’t understand even if I told you.”
“So that’s it then? You’re humiliated by something?” he deduced. “You don’t have to be embarrassed with me, Ella. Not about a thing.”
Sure I don’t.
“Look, Brandon, if you want to be with me, I have some oats to sow...” All adults said things like; they sowed their oats or something like that. What did it meant exactly? Taking care of their adult things, supposedly. And I had to prepare myself for sex in a conscientious way. I did everything the responsible way. That made the most sense.
“Oh no,” he opined. “You have no wild oats to sow, Ella. Whatever you sow, you’ll sow withme.”
A smile pulled my lips up. “That’s so sweet. But you don’t know what my wild oats are, Brandon.”
“Wild oats entail on hooking up with random strangers and getting liquored up—among other things,” he informed me.
“Oh.” That’s what that phrase meant? “You can be sure that’s not what mine are.”
“Tell me then.” He refused to give up.
And that melted my heart. “I can’t.” I didn’t care what he said; I wasn’t going to talk to him about it, birth control-wise.
“You can,” he said with authority. “And you will, Ella Finley. Hey, what’s your middle name anyway?”
