Bad Seed

“I’m needed back in Boston,” I said.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“Yes, but nothing bad. I’m making strides to buy out another contracting company in the area and merge it with mine. I have to be there to assist in the transition and make sure things go smoothly.”

“Grant, that’s incredible,” she said with a smile. “I’ll pack my things.”

I stared at her blankly, my eyes blinking as her smile slipped from her cheeks.

“We’ll have to go to my apartment,” Theresa said. “I don’t have enough clothes here.”

My brow ticked in confusion as I adjusted myself in my seat.

“You’re packing,” I said.

“That’s sort of what I have to do if we’re heading to Boston. I can’t walk around town naked.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but she covered it with hers before I could say anything. Her tongue shoved its way past my teeth and I groaned. My hand flew to her hair, grasping her tangled tendrils and tugging her off to the side. She fell into my lap, and my arms wrapped around her back as she slid her soft arms around my neck. Our lips danced together, and our tongues intermingled, and the languid kiss sent soft flames rushing over my skin.

I pulled back and found her smiling at me as her fingertips danced along my jawline.

“I can’t ask you to do that,” I said.

“You didn’t ask,” she said.

“But this is your home. Your family, your friends, your job, your life is here.”

I saw a fire rise in her eyes as she stood from my lap. She turned her back to me and walked away, her feet falling heavily against the carpet. She turned around and stuck her finger out at me, then turned her back again and groaned. She whipped around with her fist in the air, and I braced myself for whatever she had to give me. She did this time and time again, turning around and catching herself before she approached me again.

It killed me to watch her struggle with this as much as she was.

“Are you really that thick?”

I looked up into her eyes, unsure of what to say.

“Do you really think I would let you go after getting you back?” Theresa asked. “I waited eleven years, Grant. Eleven. Eleven years of trying to make someone else into something he wasn’t. Eleven years of dreaming you would come back and scoop me up into your arms and take me away. Eleven years of wondering if I was ever going to see you again. Or if I was destined to simply love this figment of my imagination for the rest of my life!”

My eyes locked onto her angry face, and I watched her skin flush. She was panting. Seething with an anger she didn’t know what to do with.

Then she strode over to me and punched me in the arm.

“You’re an idiot, Grant Hooper. But you don’t get to get rid of me that easily,” she said.

“I’m not trying to get rid of you.”

“Yes, you are. If you think you know what’s best for me and you try to force me to stay, you’re no better than Ike. Or my brother. Or my father. In fact, you’d be worse than my father, because at least my father admitted what he was doing.”

I rubbed my arm where she had punched me as I sat up in my chair.

“But if you cared about my opinion and about what I wanted for my life, then you would give me the option. You wouldn’t tell me what to do like so many others have throughout my life. You’d tell me what my options were and you’d let me decide.”

And she was right.

“Okay,” I said. “Here are your options. You can come with me and stay at my place while I work myself to death trying to get these two companies to merge. Or you can stay here with your family surrounded by a community you were raised in and find someone to share that with. Take your pick.”

Theresa’s eyes locked with mine as I stood from my chair. With my arms hanging at my sides and a lump in my throat, I slowly approached her. I watched her stand her ground as I got to her and watched her crane her neck back to keep my face in view.

Then, I asked the one question no one had ever asked Theresa before in her life.