Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
“We’re….”
“You are acting weird,” Lola cuts in, probably sensing I was going to argue. “Both of you are. What’s going on?”
“I can’t tell you,” I say. “Not until Felix is here.”
“I think I know,” Lola says, still in that infuriatingly calm tone. “I think you and Dad are….”
The apartment buzzer cuts her off. It sounds way louder than it normally does, screeching through the apartment, through my head. The insane urge to make Felix go away comes to me.
“I guess that’s him,” Lola says with a shrug. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Lola….”
She ignores me as she spins, walking from the room.
I’m glad. I had no idea what I was going to say.
I step into the living room as Lola lets Felix in.
My nerves tighten as my gaze moves over him, his rolled-up sleeves, his tight forearms, those hands that were all over me not too long ago.
My body and instincts try to get me to run over to him, jump into his arms, and pulse against him how I did yesterday.
A glint of hope – Felix and Lola share a hug. Even if she suspects, which she clearly does, maybe it can work out.
Maybe.
Or am I reading too much into a simple embrace?
“Does anybody want a drink?” I ask, striding into the kitchen, mostly to give me a break from the thick-as-heck tension hanging in the air.
“Sure,” Lola replies. “Water’s fine.”
“I’ll take a water too,” Felix says dully.
I can hear the detachment in his voice, maybe his way of dealing with all the impending awkwardness.
Carrying three drinks into the living room on a tray, I place them down on the coffee table, wincing at the clink together. Lola and Felix are sitting on opposite sides of the coffee table, so I take the couch in the middle as though I’m the referee.
That doesn’t work. Felix wasn’t playing this game solo.
“What’s so important?” Lola asks after a sip of water, looking between us. “Dad?”
Felix swallows, his lips tight. His eyes are unusually emotional, and for a second, I think he’s going to roar just to relieve some of this pressure.
I feel the same.
“Faye and I are in a relationship,” Felix says, his voice steady. “I’d say we’re boyfriend and girlfriend, but it’s much more than that. We intend to get married one day and have a family. We’re serious.”
That’s enough, I almost yell.
Partly it’s because I’m not sure Lola’s ready to hear all of that in one big outpour. But it’s also because his words are making me want to go to him, hold him, lay my cheek against his chest and listen to his beating heart.
“Right,” Lola says, still giving little away.
If she’s shocked, she’s doing a great job at not showing it.
“Faye?” she asks.
“It’s true,” I say, making myself say the words even if it hurts. “I want everything…all the stuff he just said. I want to be with him.”
Lola sits back, folding her arms. “I don’t know what to say.”
“I’m sorry….”
Lola cuts in, “I mean, I really don’t know. I always thought the crush would stay, well, a crush. I thought maybe you’d find it a bit more difficult to keep it secret, Faye, but….”
She trails off as she looks into my eyes, her expression finally softening, showing me a little of the Lola I remember from thousands of memories, all of them bright and flooded with friendship.
“You knew?” I ask.
From the corner of my eye, I can see Felix shifting awkwardly. He doesn’t like talking about my crush, I know, preferring to think of our relationship the way it is now, not filtered through a teenage girl’s fantasy
Lola sighs. “It’s obvious, Faye. At least, it always has been to me. The little looks…the way you go all red whenever we talk about him.”
“I do not,” I say, but even now I can feel my cheeks heating.
“I thought it would stay a crush,” she says. “And now you’re saying all this stuff…all this impossible stuff. How can you say you want to get married, to have a family together? How long has this been going on? Since before you left for Europe, Dad?”
“No,” Felix says. “It started the day I returned. I can’t explain it, Lola, but it was like seeing a different person. I didn’t even recognize Faye at first. And I tried to fight it.”
“Fight what?” Lola says, her tone becoming just a tiny bit snappy.
A note of discomfort resounds through me, making me think of what will happen if Lola doesn’t give us her blessing.
It’ll be the end of the relationship and the friendship.
How could Lola want to spend time together after that?
“My feelings for Faye,” Felix says calmly.
I risk looking at him, my heart, body, and soul all responding in equal measure as if I want to spend the whole afternoon sleeping peacefully in his arms…and bouncing crazily on top of him.