"Okay, fine, I ghosted you," I finally blurt out to stop him from walking away from me. I throw up my hands. He looks over at me, and I finally admit to myself that I like him. "I didn’t want to ghost you, but …"
"But I have a reputation." He points at himself. "And I don’t want a relationship." He points at me. "Trust me, I got the message loud and clear." He shakes his head, looking down and then looking up at me.
"I don’t know what I’m doing either. I don’t know what this shit is." I point at me and then him. "But I can admit that I like you, and I like being with you." Admitting this to him is excruciating. Putting your feelings out there and knowing that at any moment he could be like yeah, no, thank you.
"So I’m sorry that I didn’t answer you," I say softly, and then I shake my head as the tears start to sting at my eyes. "I didn’t know what to do." I take a deep breath and exhale. "But I do know that you're better than that guy on the ice." I take one more look at him before I turn and walk out of the room. I have to get away from him, my hand grips the door handle, and right before I pull the door open, I hear his voice.
"Why did you come here?" he asks, and when I look over my shoulder, he stands exactly where I was standing right before I turned to walk out.
"Because I was worried about you,” I tell him the truth. "Because I wanted to make sure you were okay."
"I’m fine." He puts his hands in his pockets, and I just look at him. "Thanks for checking on me."
"You’re welcome," I reply, taking one more look at him and then turning to walk out of the garage. I walk down the steps, and everything in me is yelling to go back in there. I press the button to close the garage door, and the minute it starts to close behind me, everything in me is yelling to stay. But then my heart starts to speed up, and I swear my heart is going to come out of my chest. It’s pounding so hard in my chest that I have to take a second and breathe. Putting my hands on my knees, I take a breath and look over my shoulder at the garage door as it seals itself shut.
Chapter 26
Wilson
I walk toward the stairs, and I hear the garage door close. My whole body goes ice-cold, and instead of running up the steps to my bedroom, I’m running toward the front door. I run out and see her hunched over. Everything in me stops, and I mean everything. "Frances," I say her name, and she looks up at me. When I pulled up and saw her car, I was so fucking shocked. My heart became so full in my chest, but then in the blink of an eye, it was gone. I couldn’t believe it, but the shock faded and was replaced with anger. I was pissed that she spent the past three days ghosting me. I was pissed that I brought my personal life onto the ice. I was pissed that I was tied up in knots the whole time, and when I saw her, she looked more fucking beautiful than she did before.
"I think I had a panic attack," she says, getting up to standing. But she takes one breath, and then she starts to pant and bends again. "I’m fine," she affirms. "It’s fine. It’ll be gone in a minute." My feet move toward her, and for the second time tonight, my heart stops. The first was when I pulled up and saw her car there. It was as if it was a sign from above. It’s like I fucked up, but someone, somewhere, was throwing me a bone for the first time in my whole life. When I got off the ice, I went to my phone and blocked her number and then proceeded to pitch my phone against the wall. It’s safe to say—wall one, iPhone zero.
"Frances." I walk over to her and squat beside her.
The tears in her eyes are gutting me. "I’ll leave," she says, and all I can do is tuck her hair behind her ear.
I put my hand on her cheek. "Breathe," I tell her softly.
"I’m trying to breathe, Brad." She uses my name, and I know she’s pissed. "Go away," she says angrily, trying to shake my hand off her face.
"You came to me," I remind her.
"Yeah, when I thought you were in trouble." She starts breathing fine, and I don’t know if she notices or not. "But now that you're fine, I don’t want you near me."