“Yeah, but I don’t get to have her as long as you have Pippa…” He sighed as he sat on the arm of the faded brown leather Chesterfield. “I need to make an impression.”
“Oh God, I’m so sorry.” I sat next to him and tucked my clasped hands between my thighs. “I didn’t think. I’m sorry I ran out on you earlier too.”
“It was probably for the best.”
I winced at his words. “That bad, huh?”
“No. Not really. Jenna and I talked about things.”
“And?” I twisted to look at him.
“And what else is there to say? She’s having a baby with Dick.”
“At some point you’re going to have to stop calling him that.”
“It makes me feel better.”
“Does it really?”
“No.” He shrugged, a smirk forming on his lips. “To be fair that was his nickname when we were younger. He should see it as a term of twisted endearment.”
He stood and pulled me up with him. He sat back down on the actual sofa seat and pulled me back down next to him.
“Do you ever think about what life would be like if things were different?” He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. His face in his hands.
“All the time.” I sighed.
He peered up at me over his shoulder.
“Why?”
My heart started the hammering that had only just about mellowed and my hands became so clammy I had to shake them out. I felt almost incapable of breathing.
That sensation where your stomach has dropped yet the butterflies inside it make it feel like it’s where your heart should be, completely overwhelmed me.
It was like every
thing inside me was humming and vibrating and all I could hear was white noise fizzing in my ears.
“Why Quincy?” He pressed. His voice laced with something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
I swallowed. “Why do you think, Jamie?”
His breath hitched as his gaze bore straight into mine. He sat up, his body twisted towards me and his warm hand cupped my cheek.
“Tell me why.”
I opened my mouth to respond but closed it again as I tried to think of how to string the words together.
The feel of his thumbs stroking my cheeks making the thinking almost impossible.
“Because…be-because—”
He dropped his hands as he murmured a frustrated curse at his phone going off.
He took one look at his screen and got up, shoving his phone in his pocket.
“Shit, I need to go.”