Judging Books

“Not my place,” he said quickly and quietly, glancing nervously at Faith. She gave him a small smile. I had honestly forgotten she was there at all.

“My place?” I asked, hopeful. My jittery stomach waited for his reply.

“Okay.” Ethan let go of my hands, but his left arm immediately pulled me against him. I wrapped both arms around him, letting the tears go and soak into his shirt.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I really, really am…”

Ethan wrapped his other arm around me and held me against his chest for a minute. He touched the top of my head with his lips before he released me, saying he’d call the cab and then we could go. He walked through the door and out of my sight, leaving Faith and me alone in the hallway.

“He cares about you,” Faith said with a smile. “Sometimes, he just doesn’t know what he’s feeling.”

“He’s not the only one,” I mumbled. “We just met, but I…”

“I’m not letting him go anywhere with her!” A loud voice screeched from inside the apartment. Suddenly, Andrea was back in the hallway, shaking a finger at me. “There is no way I’m letting him leave here—not with you! You fucking hurt him, you skanky little—”

“Andrea!” Faith stood between us and glanced over her shoulder back into the apartment. “He’s going to hear you!”

“Good! Obviously he’s got his wires crossed if he’s listening to her, so he needs to listen to someone else!”

“I think Ethan needs to talk to her,” Faith said quietly, though she was still eyeing me warily.

“That was his first panic attack since Hailey left him!” Andrea snarled. “Faith, he was a freaking mess! You didn’t see him when he first got here! This bitch did that to him, and I’m not going to let her—”

“Andi”—Faith put her hand on Andrea’s arm—“remember what he was like yesterday?”

“Of course I fucking remember! That just makes this so much worse!”

“He wants to work it out.” Faith leaned a little closer to the blonde. “He was holding on to her with a death grip, and he didn’t even know it.”

Andrea glared at me, narrowed her eyes even more, and then stuck out her bottom lip. She exhaled sharply, causing her breath to make her bangs fly off her forehead for a moment.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Andrea said, but her voice held a lot less venom than it had just a second ago.

“I don’t want to hurt him—”

“Shut up,” Andrea said. “You are the last person I want to hear from right now.”

“He needs to talk to her, Andi. He was so upset, but it was because—”

“Whatever.” She held her hand in front of Faith’s face. Faith scowled at her and pushed it away.

“Stop it.” The little brunette was starting to look like David in front of Goliath. “Ethan needs this. Give him a fucking chance to see if it can work. He deserves a chance. Are you going to deny him that?”

Andrea stopped her grumbling long enough to stare intently at Faith and then took a long, slow breath. She put her hands on her hips. Andrea rose up to her full height and glared down at me.

“If you hurt him again, I swear I’ll be looking for you,” she told me. “I don’t know what the fuck he sees in you, but I don’t like it. I don’t like you snobby, rich bitches with your country clubs and your Gucci purses!”

“It’s Prada,” I said before I could stop myself. Her glare intensified.

“If he comes back here again like he did this afternoon, I will hunt you down and feed you the fucking Prada purse. Got it?”

“Got it,” I whispered. Holy shit, she was scary.

“Andrea!” Faith grabbed her arm and shoved her back through the doorway. Andrea went reluctantly, giving me the stink eye the entire time. Faith shook her head a little before turning back to me. Her stare wasn’t nearly as frightening but certainly still intense.

“Ethan’s special to a lot of people,” she said quietly enough that those inside could not have heard her. “He means a lot to me and to his other friends. He was so happy when he was here last weekend that I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and hope we can chalk this up to a misunderstanding, but don’t hurt him like that again. Don’t ever make him feel like he’s less than he is. I won’t stand for it.”

“I didn’t mean to,” I said. I felt another tear run down my cheek. “I really didn’t. He means a lot to me as well, and I already know how wonderful he is.”