Besotted by Melissa Duclos

Author:Melissa Duclos [Duclos, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, coming-of-age, Women, Literary, China, Romance
ISBN: 9781732868656
Publisher: 7.13 Books
Published: 2019-03-11T04:00:00+00:00

7.

I slid close to Liz in the back of the cab on the way home, but the space I’d created between us didn’t get any smaller.

“That was fun.” Liz said sarcastically.

“You’re upset.” As though she needed me to tell her.

“No, I loved spending the night watching a good-looking guy hit on my girlfriend while I’m being ignored.”

“I wasn’t ignoring you.”

She turned away from me to stare out the window. Looking back, I wonder if it was my attention she’d been missing. At the time I thought I was getting the silent treatment I deserved.

“I’m sorry,” I said to the back of Liz’s head. “I don’t know why this is so hard for me.” It would have been closer to the truth to say I didn’t know how to explain to her why it was hard, but even that seemed like saying too much. I willed the traffic to disperse and our cab to speed up, wanting the safety of our apartment.

“I know this is new for us, but really—I don’t understand why you are so secretive about it. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Histories and histories and histories.

“I know that. I’m not ashamed.”

“Then what is it? You can’t expect me to just accept that you don’t know.”

Our cab pulled into the semi-circular driveway in front of our building. I paid the fare—the least I could do—counting the bills slowly, buying time.

Alice had turned us into a spectacle. I was complicit—reliant on alcohol and dim party lights to push me through my inexperience, and to drown out the questions I didn’t know yet how to answer. But my feelings for her were real. The titillated onlookers were never the point.

Was Liz an Alice or a Heather? It scared me that I couldn’t tell.

“I just need some more time to feel settled, and less anxious. It’s only been a couple of months. I’m still trying to get used to this,” is what I said.

It was the right thing to say to earn her sympathy.

“Only that long? God, it feels like so much longer, don’t you think? I feel like we’ve been together forever.”

“Well, it has been longer since you moved in. Maybe that’s really when it all started.”

Liz laughed. “Like I was some mail-order-bride you sent for from America.”

I bit my lip. “Actually,” I answered slowly, “I did send for you.” A minor secret, something I thought I could give her.

“What do you mean?”

“I found you. I brought you here. I gave your résumé to the principal. He didn’t look at any other applicants. Actually,” I paused and chuckled at this, “I told him there were no other applicants.”

“What? Why?”

“I just had a sense, I guess. I don’t really know, exactly. It was the e-mail you sent, I think. I just knew you needed to be here.”

I liked to imagine Liz writing her cover letter. From the time stamp I knew it had been the middle of the night, and so I pictured her in a dark apartment, her hair in a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.