“Never,” I told her as I grabbed her bag from her. “January?” I asked her, walking a bit ahead.
“Yes, dear?” I smiled to myself, refusing to look at her.
“You look lovely today.”
“Thank you,” she said, an answering smile hidden on her face as well. I could hear it. “So, who’s in Rome?”
“A South African band named The Great Remember. I’ve been wanting to see them for some time now. I got wind of them through a mutual friend of Jason’s and mine.”
“Cool. What’s their sound?”
“Kind of a cross between folk and rock. Chicks will dig ’em. They use a lot of unusual instruments in their recordings as well as live, a lot of acoustic stuff, a lot of sweet sounding melodies. For some reason they favor G major.”
“That’s my favorite key.”
“You may like them then. I haven’t seen them live yet though, looking forward to it.”
“Do you have anything by them?”
“I do.”
“All right then.”
“Have your medicine?” I asked her.
“Aye, aye, Cap’n!” She saluted me as we stepped onto the elevator.
“Have-Have you thought any more on Kelly’s wedding?” I stuttered like a blithering idiot and settling in as the doors closed.
She hesitated. “Honestly? I don’t think it would be wise for me to go.”
She shifted slightly and leaned against the wall closest to her.
“Can I ask why?” I asked, my stomach dropping to my feet.
“Because, Tom,” she said as we both stepped off the elevator, “I don’t like being used and that’s what I think you’re doing.” She left me with my jaw hanging open and checked us out of our rooms. All I could do was watch her beautiful figure and restrain myself from groveling at her feet, begging her to change the way she thought about me. I felt like such a pathetic loser. She had more control over me than I thought possible and I wanted so badly to feel bad about that but couldn’t and that made me even more peeved. We cabbed it to the train station in a stony silence. I was fuming and could tell by her defiant body language that she’d caught on.
“Just out with it already, Tom.”
We approached a bench to wait out our train.
“How in the hell did you get the impression I was using you?” I asked. She sighed loudly and plopped onto the seat. I sat next to her, closely. “How, January?” I whispered. There was more hurt in my voice than I’d imagined I’d allowed.
She turned her body so that her face was next to mine. “I won’t be made a fool, Tom. Ever. I’ve had lots of practice at it and I’m confident enough to know that I’m worth more than showing up to a wedding on the arm of the man who’s still in love with the bride.”
I shook my head at her. “Haven’t you been listening to me, January? I’m not in love with Kelly. I haven’t been for more than six months. I’m completely and utterly over Kelly.”
“Nobody gets over the love of his or her life in six months, Tom. Nobody.”
I studied the stressed lines in her beautiful face and how the light glinted off her glassy blue eyes. I ran my fingers along the crease in her brow, relaxing the worry away.
And it clicked.
I let the recognition spread through the slow smile on my face and grabbed her shoulders, squeezing her into a hug, using every bit of restraint I had not to press too tightly. I wanted so badly for her to melt into me. “You’re right,” I secreted into her ear, crushing her to my chest. “Nobody gets over the love of their life in six months, January. Nobody. In fact,” I told her, kissing her neck so softly it could have barely registered and speaking even softer. “You never get over the love of your life.” I felt the movement of her neck as she swallowed my words. “I swear to everything, January, I am over Kelly.”
I gently placed my mouth on hers and a surge of electricity seemed to pass between us. All I could think of was that I’d somehow zapped January MacLochlainn, that she’d been served a tablespoon of her own medicine and that its effects were immediate.
I’d fallen so hard in love with her, I was surprised I hadn’t been knocked out cold.