“Then he tried to manage me. His demands started costing me work. I went to him and said I thought he should stay out of that part of my life and he went ballistic. He accused me of having an affair, lying about my jobs, and then….then he hit me for the first time.”
I pause for a beat, waiting for some kind of reaction from him, nothing happens besides the slightest twitch of his muscles.
“It only got worse from there. He was strategic in the ways that he hurt me, making sure to never leave marks on my face. I had to walk on eggshells around him. I wanted to leave him. I even started talking to Lucas about it. He was going to help me get out… and then the bastard found out. He read my texts on my phone and went insane. I’d never seen him like that before. He broke my ribs, shattered the orbital bone in my right eye, and fractured my skull. I was in the hospital for a couple of days. Luke came to get me and I never looked back. Now I only look over my shoulder instead.”
Letting all those words go into the air felt good. It’s a story only Martin, Maria, and Lucas ever knew. I never even fully spoke to a doctor or therapist about it. My journal even stayed free of it. Now, the other shoe has fallen. Just putting the confession into the universe was tiring. I cling to Tristan even tighter now.
Just as I close my eyes, his hands flex and tighten around my back. “Thank you for being brave, love.”
My eyes flicker open and my chin raises to meet the gaze of his brilliant blue eyes looking down at me. “How much did you hear?”
“All of it, Petal. I tried not to sleep in case you would need me. My stillness was an offering in the hopes if I was still, you in turn would be.”
“I’ve never told anyone the entire story before,” I admit to him.
“Thank you for sharing this with me, but may I say something in return?”
“Of course.”
“I want you to look at all that you’ve accomplished in spite of him. You have grown and are so much stronger now than you were then. You should be proud of yourself for overcoming. I don’t want you to live your life looking over your shoulder. You’re powerful. A lioness. Be that lioness that I know you are and if you forget, I’ll be there to remind you.”
Tears burn my eyes and I bury my face into his chest.
My entire life, I’ve always feared that I was a convenient warm body or just another pretty face, but his words tell me that I’m so much more than that to him.
I’m a woman. One with power and the ability to be strong and conquer anything that steps in my path. He believes in me enough for the both of us.
In this bedroom, wrapped around him like a vine, I know that I’ve fallen desperately in love with him.
***
We’d fallen back asleep when his cell phone ringing startles me awake.
“I’m sorry, Petal. I should have turned that off.”
“No, no, it’s okay. You should get it. It could be important.” I try to roll over to allow him room, but he tightens his grip on me, opting to attempt some impressive arm stretch to retrieve his cell phone from the nightstand without disturbing me.
I rest my cheek on his chest and it vibrates against me when he talks.
“Hello?” There is silence and he says it again. “Hello, this is Tristan?” Again, more silence, then he moves, ending the call and tossing the phone back to his nightstand.
“Wrong number?” I ask.
“I’m not sure. They didn’t say anything, so I guess they’ll call back if it’s important.”
We settle back into the bed together, but I don’t close my eyes. Instead, I’m overcome with something that I know I want to happen desperately, but… I’m not sure how he’ll react.
So, I just spit it out.
“Tristan, I’d like you to come meet Martin and Maria… and Lucas officially, of course.”
“Petal, are you asking me to meet the parents?”
I can feel my cheeks flush with the same color pink I’m used to wearing elsewhere. “I guess I am. You’re important to me. They’re important to me. I don’t know how we’d do it, or if it’s even possible, but it’s what I want.”
“It’s a delicate matter, Nora. We both know how Lucas took to seeing us together. How will the principal and the stay-at-home mum look at a man nearly their age presented to be with someone like a daughter to them?”
“You’re not nearly their age, Tristan.”
“I am more their contemporary than yours. You don’t have any trepidation about it?”
“I didn’t until now. Your trepidation is giving me a bit of my own, but I know that my heart still wants you all to meet each other. As far as Lucas goes, I can talk to him before. We don’t have to tell them that you’re my professor, if that makes things easier to swallow, for now at least.”
He stays silent for much longer than I’d like him to. It’s making me anxious and worried that I might have taken a step too far with this request.
“This means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”
“It really does. I think it will tell you things about me without me having to say anything. I have had good things in my life. They are my good. I’d like to be able to share both sides with you. You’ve handled the shit rather well. I’d like to see what the good does.”
“When you put it that way, Petal,” Tristan traces a soft line from just behind my ear to the point of my jaw, “I can’t say no. You tell me where and when and we’ll take the rest as it comes.”
Chapter 19
Nora
“Lucas?” I ask when I push open our front door, pausing for a brief smile at the wall that started it all for Tristan and I. “Are you home?” I call out, shedding my sweater and piling my hair into a bun with the hair tie around my wrist.
“I’m in the kitchen,” I hear him say.
“Is there coffee for me?” I slip my shoes off by the door and tiptoe across the hardwood and into our small, quaint kitchen.
“Considering I didn’t know if you’d actually be home this morning, no, there isn’t.”
“I have a paper due in a couple days so I need to get some finishing touches on it. Careful, you’re starting to sound like a jealous boyfriend.”
“I’m not jealous. I just don’t like how all of a sudden you’re attached to him. He’s too…”
“Too what? Tell me. I’d like to hear it. Who do you think Tristan is?”
“Tristan, is it? Well, I suppose you’d have to be on a first name basis in bed.”
I take a step back. “Don’t speak to me like that. And don’t assume I’m some whore.”
He sighs and scrubs his hand over his face, “You know I don’t think you’re a whore. Don’t say things like that to me. I’m your best friend, Nor. I had to literally pull you out of a cesspool of bullshit. Forgive me for not wanting you to get hurt again.”
“Tristan isn’t going to hurt me. He never could.”
“How can you possibly know that? Your judgment doesn't exactly have a stellar track record.”
“I came in this door happy and excited. Since you clearly missed it, I’m going to go to my room before I say something I might regret. Oh P.S. Family dinner at your parents tonight. I’ll be bringing Tristan.”