Behind the 8-Ball: A Subpar Heroes Story by A. E. Wasp

Author:A. E. Wasp [Wasp, A. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

DASH

Walking down the stairs to my bedroom with Harlan at my back felt surreal, like the years between the last time we’d done this and right now had only been a dream. The otherworldliness of the moment was broken only by the mundaneness of the vacuum cleaner thumping against each stair as I dragged it down.

Harlan wanted me back. It was just like him to think he could stroll back into my life with an apology on his lips and I would welcome him with open arms.

Not that he’d actually apologized for anything. I wasn’t looking for that anyway.

As much as I’d been dreaming about this moment, my feelings were somewhere beyond mixed now that the moment was here. I’d imagined it going a hundred different ways. In these fantasies, I did everything from kicking him out of my office/room/life forever to ripping his clothes off before he had time to get a word out. Cursed necklaces and glitter bombs had featured in exactly zero of the scenarios.

When he’d confessed he was here to get me back during dinner, my heart had stopped and then started with such a jolt, I was sure everyone could hear it. (I owed Camelia a big one for asking what I’d been too cowardly to ask.) It had been hard to keep my feelings off my face. I’m not sure I succeeded, but at least no one had called me on it.

What was I looking for? I wish I knew.

(Lie. I knew. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.)

My heart and my brain were sending me warning signals, telling me it all was going to end in tears. My body, however, was screaming at me to grab him with both hands and not let go. I was dying to see if he felt as good as he had all those years ago. I had a suspicion it would be even better now that we were all grown up.

As hot as the flame of young love could burn, a love between two people who had both survived the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune had a depth, a weight, that those early relationships couldn’t match. The years were written on both of our faces and bodies.

Life had, I hoped, made me a more interesting, thoughtful person. I wasn’t the same kid I had been back when we started at eighteen. Neither was Harlan.

I’d grown more cautious and more cynical. Harlan had gotten more reckless, more willing to damn the torpedoes.

He’d come to my home and faced my family, knowing they might hate him. He hadn’t had to agree to move in with me. Though I did actually feel better having him where I could see him, it wasn’t necessarily safer. It was clear, given the attack with the stupidest bomb in history, that whomever we were dealing with knew where we were.

My breath caught when I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and surveyed the damage. Thank the universe that the bomber had chosen to make some kind of statement rather than try to cause serious injury.

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.