Page 3 of Lessons in Falling
God, Iris,Anni gushed, endearingly rolling her eyes, smiling brightly.Thank God we have your blessing!Then she looked back at me to answer the initial question.He wouldn’t have made it here on time.Said that if he wouldn’t catch Chester’s performance,what’s the point, babe?Her voice pitched three octaves lower when she imitated his voice impressively well.He’s waiting at home.
And the word brought that familiar, fuzzy warmth back into the pit of my stomach—the one I’d been searching for since I’d been a child.That made me feel safe and accepted and like I belonged.Home:a feeling, more so than a place.
So while Anni’s boyfriend waited for us to get home, we demolished a last round of margaritas—on the house, courtesy of Iris’ shrill, out of tune, but very passionate performance ofWhat Makes You Beautiful.At this point, Alfie struggled to get the straw into his mouth as well.Iris was ready for another rendition of an iconic 2010’s song.Anni kept her from going back up to the mic, almost falling out of the booth, laughing and squealing.And all three of them had to keep me from texting my favorite Oakport-fling so I wouldn’t seemdesperate,laughing and throwing my phone around the table, to keep it away from my very desperate hands.
I couldn’t have seen it coming: how big of a turn the night was about to take, the second I’d get home.
CHAPTER 2
CADEN
I’d always thought of Valentina Rhodes as this whimsical, perfect figment of my imagination.Don’t get me wrong, I knew she was real, and I was about… ninety percent sure that what had happened between us had been real, too, but the second I’d laid eyes on her four months ago, she’d seemed a little impossible.
Her cherry red hair, big brown eyes, round, rosy cheeks.The way she’d timidly sipped on her drink, smiled at me from across the bar—and the fact she’d clearly had no idea that the way she walked and talked and danced had affected me so wholly.
That when she’d asked, after an hour of talking in some secluded corner of the party we’d been at,Are we leaving together, Callahan?, I’d nearly combusted.And that sometimes, when I’d had a particularly bad day, I’d replay the way she’d said my name.
But because I hadn’t heard from her since, I’d convinced myself I must’ve conjured her up.Ten percent of me, at least, believed I had imagined the whole thing.
Until now.
Four months later, a little past midnight, too—but without a smile on her lips.Without that palpable tension between us, the need for more than flirty nothings exchanged in a loud college bar radiating off her.Because I was in her room, and, judging by the scowl on her face, she had not expected me here.
In my defense: when Mike had warned me that I’d be sharing a room with one of his friends, the last person I’d expected to walk through the door was Valentina.Then again, when I’d walked through that door of our shared room a few hours earlier, the last thing I’d expected to find there was a bunkbed.
I’d been thinking about her a lot since we’d first (and last) seen each other four months ago, and still nothing could’ve prepared me for the visceral reaction I had when our eyes reconnected for the first time.
Like something had been unleashed, a sense of awareness that flooded through me.Reminded me of every single perfect thing about her—and why I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her.She’d been breathtaking then, in my mind, where I’d redrawn her from memory more often that I’d like to admit, but she’d still exceeded expectations.Somehow.
What…?Her eyebrows drew together, as if she wasn’t quite sure how to react to my presence.Fair enough, honestly.A (somewhat) strange man in my bed wouldn’t exactly elicit a different response from me.
Valentina blinked rapidly, round eyes narrowing as she searched for the right words.Going by what I’d learned about her in those few hours months ago, I expected aWhat are you doing here?Maybe aWhat is happening?
Clearly, I did not know her half as well as I’d liked to.
What the fuck?The words basically flew out of her mouth, and at least she seemed a little surprised by them as well.Then, she caught herself—planted one hand on her hip, while the other pointed an accusatory finger at me.What the fuckare you doing here?
Did she remember?The way she’d whimpered my name, then cuddled into my chest like we’d been married for years?Then left before I’d woken up?It had only been a few minutes, but the fact she hadn’t acknowledged what had been my highlight of the fucking year… pissed me off.
I sat up straight, almost hit my head on the ceiling, and promptly remembered why I hadn’t done that before.Valentina, you wound me,I pouted.She narrowed her eyes—I wasn’t even sure if she could still see me.I missed you so much, I simply had to break into your room and ruin your summer.
The fact I knew I wasn’t being fair kind of made this worse.Obviously she deserved to knowwhat the fuckI was doing in her room—I owed her an explanation, almost as much as her friends owed her an apology for the missing warning.
A simple,Hey, you’ll have a bunk-mate this summerwould’ve done the trick.
Cut the shit, Callahan.Finally, Valentina stepped into our room.She forgot her suitcase in the hallway and swayed with each step until she could hold onto the dresser against the wall, to her right.She was clearly plastered.Drunk off her ass.Would probably not remember this conversation tomorrow.But all I could focus on was my name coming out of her mouth.
That, despite the fact there was nothing flirtatious in her tone, it still sounded just as beautiful as it had the last time.
So she did remember.
The satisfaction uncurling in the pit of my stomach was almost embarrassing—the urge to ask,Why didn’t you call?even worse.Juvenile, petty, not at all me.Iwas supposed to be the one who didn’t call.The one who didn’t care.Iwanted no-strings-attached, and Valentina had done me a favor by leaving.
If I repeated it often enough, maybe I’d actually start believing it.
The women I hooked up with weren’t usually this averse to seeing me again, either.Mad because I hadn’t called; maybe?Or shy because Ihadcalled, and they hoped I’d be trying to make whatever thing between us more than casual sex—which I never would, and had made abundantly clear from the beginning.But neither of those seemed to be the case for Valentina.She seemed annoyed by my presence, not by the fact that I hadn’t called.And there was nothing shy about her.
Maybe you should ask your friends.The words were out before I could stop myself, and for a second, I wondered ifI’dbeen the one who’d had too much to drink tonight.It would explain the way none of my bodily functions were under my own control, and that I was still thinking about why she hadn’t called.Or that it annoyed me way too much.
