“Promise?” He asked, a nervous tension in his voice.
I leaned up just enough to press small kisses to the top of his head. “I promise.”
I’d never promised to stay anywhere for anyone, but I was willing to do it for Jami.
Jami
After that Everything was fine again. Lena forgave me and we hardly talked about what had happened. It’s wasn’t that we were ignoring it, but rather we didn’t need to talk about it anymore because it had been settled. Neither of us were worried about it anymore. We both knew where the other stood and slowly but surely we were coming to understand one another.
We’d been together officially for the last two months and I absolutely adored having her around. Lena was a free spirit and much more independent than the girls I was used to dealing with and I loved it. I wouldn’t have it any other way, if we’re being honest. She was so different and that’s what I adored about her. There had been so many other women before her, but none could hold a candle to her strength.
We were on the balcony of my penthouse (one of her favorite spots) and the New York skyline was stretched out before us, glittering with promise. She sipped at a glass of home brewed sweet tea and sighed as the warm, spring breeze rustled the trees below.
“This is perfect. Like…Am I dead? Is this heaven?”
I chuckled and glanced over at her, finishing my glass and setting it aside. “Last I checked, we were on the upper east side, but I think that’s about as close to heaven as most people get.”
“You can say that again.”
Lena put her head on my shoulder and glanced up at me. “I’m glad I met you, you know. You were a pain in my ass at first, but I’m glad I met y
ou.”
I put my hand on the back of her head and leaned down to kiss her hair, taking in the subtle scent of cherry blossoms. She always smelled like cherry blossoms. “Me too, Lena. Me too.” Hell, I was pretty sure I loved her, but I could tell her that, not yet. It was still too soon.
She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted when her cell phone when off. She groaned and rolled her eyes a little, picking up and turning it over to read whatever was on the screen. She became flustered and turned it back over, setting it face down on the table.
“Who was that?”
“No one.”
“You can’t tell me that,” I grunted. “Your phone goes off like once a day, you get made and then you tell me it’s no one. I’m not trying to be an asshole, but I just don’t accept that it’s ‘no one’. You wouldn’t get so upset.”
Her lips pressed into a tight line. “Why are you pushing this?”
“Because I’m worried about you.”
“Well, there’s no reason to worry. It’s just some shit that I have to deal with.”
“But why deal with it alone if you don’t have to?”
“I just…This is my business alright?” She was getting flustered but I didn’t feel like it was the right choice to stop.
“I know it’s your business, but…I want to help.”
“There’s nothing to help.”
“Stop pushing me away.” I sat up and looked at her seriously, frowning deeply. “You made me come clean about my shit. I think it’s only fair that you do the same.”
She seemed annoyed that I’d called her out, but I wasn’t really worried about that. There was clearly something going on and I was going to get to the bottom of it. I wasn’t about to start my first real relationship in almost a decade with secrets.
“It’s my dad,” she murmured.
The answer surprised me. I had half been expecting an ex-lover. “Your dad?”
“Yeah. He wants me to come home. Mom is sick,” she muttered, clearly trying to tell me as little as possible.
Up until this point she had always been very open with me. She didn’t really seem to have any secrets, but now I could tell that there was something just under the surface that she’d been hiding. “You don’t want to go back home?”