Page 26 of Blind Spot
“No. When?”
“When we became intimate.”
My jaw clenched, and I didn’t want to hear it, but I knew as her friend, she needed to get some things off her chest.
“Did he hurt you?”
“No. He was caring and concerned.”
“Then what was the problem?”
She stayed quiet for so long that I thought she had fallen asleep. When her shoulders shook and I felt moisture on my chest, then I knew that she was crying and not asleep.
“Charly.” Her name came out with a bite.
“Yes?”
“What was the problem?”
“I just knew that he wasn’t the man for me. I knew that I had made a mistake by giving myself to him.” She was sobbing. I wanted to beat my brother’s ass again. He had no right to take something so precious from her, especially considering that he hadn’t valued it at all.
“Why didn’t you leave him?”
“I know that it sounds stupid now, but at the time, I felt horrible. I didn’t want Ramon to feel like I’d been using him to cope with my grief over my mother or you being gone. I stayed with him out of guilt. And then I felt like I should at least try to make it work since I’d given him my virginity. I didn’t want to feel like a fool, giving myself for the first time to someone I didn’t truly appreciate or even love.”
“Shortcake, that was a decision that you made, and one you’ll have to live with. You can’t change it, but you can move on and learn to make better decisions off logic rather than emotion. But don’t beat yourself up about that shit. You had no way of knowing you were fucking a frog.”
She stiffened in my arms and then burst out laughing several seconds later.
Knowing that I brought a smile to her face made me feel good, even if my heart was ripped.
Chapter 9
Charly
Imoved quickly around the kitchen as I removed the yeast rolls from the oven and grabbed two plates. The front door opened just as I plated the smothered chicken.
“Hi, honey. I’m home,” Dominic called out teasingly as I heard him set his keys in the bowl.
I giggled and called back. “I’m in the kitchen.”
My body hummed in anticipation of seeing his gorgeous face as he stepped into the kitchen with me.
“Damn, you up in here cooking up a feast. What have you done?”
“I didn’t cook up a feast, and I haven’t done anything. It’s just smothered chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and yeast rolls.”
“I smell something sweet too.”
“Oh, that’s the brownies that are in the oven now. I thought that would be a great dessert for some ice cream.”
“Listen, woman, if you wanted to stay here in my apartment and not have a deadline, all you had to do was say that shit.” He chuckled as he grabbed a sports drink from the refrigerator.
“Boy, whatever. Are you ready to eat this food or not?”
“I mean, a man like me just finished a difficult shift . . . so you know.”
“What kind of shift did you work today?” I asked, bringing his plate and mine into the living room.
