I drop my head and walk away.
I don’t look back until I get to my truck, and by then she’s gone back inside. “Idiot!” I shout, punching the door. I reach for the handle with my throbbing hand and climb inside.
I sit in my truck for a long time, staring at my phone. I want to call Liv and explain what happened, but I text her the number of a cab company instead.
Me: Stay and have fun with Trisha. Here’s the number for a cab later. Still no Uber on the island. Please don’t drive home.
Chapter 14
Liv
I wake up much too early, considering the hour I went to bed. My mouth is dry and I’m thirsty. I wanted to go home after Gabe got kicked out of Charlie’s last night, but Trisha, who had already consumed several cocktails, wasn’t ready for the night to end. So I half-heartedly danced with her and the other drunk fools until she was finally ready to leave around midnight.
I grab my phone off the nightstand.
6am
It’s early, but I have to see Gabe. I don’t know what happened last night, but I can’t spend another week waiting to find out. I’ll have to take Trisha’s car, though. Mine is still sitting in the parking lot at Charlie’s.
I get up and take a quick shower, brush my teeth, and throw on a sundress and sandals. I leave a bottle of water and two Tylenol on the nightstand next to Trisha, who will likely be sleeping until the late hours of the morning.
I grab her keys and sneak out of the house.
On my way to Gabe’s, I finish a bottle of water and swallow down some Tylenol for good measure, but I actually feel pretty good. All I need now is a cup of coffee.
It’s not quite 7:00 when I pull onto the Norths’ property, which is blanketed by a cloudy veil of fog that’s masking the views of the green trees in the distance. This is the third time I’ve driven past Gabe’s parents’ house unnoticed, but I doubt anyone is even up yet. I’ll have to see them eventually, but for now, I’m happy to avoid any uncomfortable run-ins. Especially with Jackie, seeing as how well our last encounter went.
I pull up to the garage and park next to Gabe’s truck. It’s quiet on the property, besides the occasional call of a robin beckoning the morning. I’m sure Gabe is still asleep, but I can’t wait for him to wake up. I need to talk to him now.
I tip-toe up the dewy stairs to his apartment. I’m halfway up when he opens the door and steps out onto the landing.
I guess he heard me pull up.
I pause and drink him in. He’s shirtless and barefoot, wearing a pair of gray drawstring joggers that are tied low on his waist, showing off the V below his sculpted eight pack. His hair is tousled around his scruffy face and his eyes are still heavy from sleep. He’s too much to look at this early in the morning, but I can’t avert my eyes. They follow the lines of his torso up to his beautiful face.
“Hey,” he says, low and husky.
“Hi.”
“Are you okay?”
I nod. “I know it’s early. Sorry.”
He holds the door open for me to come up and I climb the rest of the steps. I rub Roxy’s head when she greets me at the door. “Hi, Rox.” She circles my legs and follows me in.
“Coffee?”
“Yeah. Coffee would be great.”
I sit down at the table in his small kitchen and watch him make a pot of coffee. He gets a couple of mugs down and stands over the pot, watching it intently as it brews. He must need a cup as badly as I do. That or he’s distracting himself with it on purpose to avoid talking to me about last night. Something tells me it’s the latter.
When the coffee is done brewing, he fills the mugs and stirs in some sugar and half-and-half. He hands me a cup and sits down across from me.
I wrap my hands around the warm mug and slowly sip the creamy, lightly sweetened coffee, recalling how Travis never made my coffee right. “This is perfect,” I muse quietly.
“I remembered that you like a lot of cream and just a little sugar.”
“You remembered that?”
“Yeah, well, you sent me on enough coffee runs during finals.” He laughs quietly and sips his cup. “You used to get all hyped up on caffeine so you could stay up late studying.”
“Yeah.” I laugh and put the cup down on the table. I give him a small, guarded smile. “I’m sorry that I woke you.”
“I needed to get up. I have some work I have to finish today, so...”
“Gabe, are you going to talk to me about last night?”
He pulls his eyebrows together, making the little line appear over the bridge of his nose. “No,” he says stubbornly.
“Why?”
“Because it was stupid. I was just being an idiot. I’m sorry that I ruined the night.”
“You didn’t ruin anything. But I think I deserve an explanation. I mean, one minute we were having a good time and the next you were knocking some guy out and getting kicked out of the bar?”
He stares at his cup of coffee.
“If you’re having a hard time controlling your temper—”
His eyes flash up to me. “You think I have anger issues?”
I shake my head uncertainly. “Then just tell me you had a good reason.”
He drops his hands into his lap and sighs. “I can’t do this.”
“You can’t do what?”
“This,” he says with a defeated look on his face.
“You can’t talk to me?”
His empty eyes gaze at me and I begin to wonder if this is the Gabe my mom warned me about. His mood shifted quicker than I could blink last weekend, he withdrew into silence all week, then he lost his temper last night, and now he’s going to shut me out again. My heart shrinks inside my chest and hot tears burn behind my eyes, but I hold them back. The anticipation of the withdrawal I’m undoubtedly going to experience fills me with fear, which I immediately convert into anger.
“Why the hell did you even come last night? If you don’t want to be around me, Gabe, then don’t. I wasn’t trying to push you to be my friend, I just thought maybe you could use one. I guess I was wrong.”
He takes a deep breath and stands up. “I don’t want to be your friend.” He grabs the back of his chair. “Don’t you get it?”
Ouch. I feel myself shrinking in my chair as the anger turns to hurt.
He runs his hands through his hair and then drops them on the table. He looks into my eyes and says clearly, “I can’t be your friend.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat. Do not cry. Do not cry. “I understand.” I stand up and look for my bag so I can run to the car and let it out. Where the hell is my bag? I find it under the table and search for my keys with shaking fingers.
“No, you don’t understand.”
I’m suddenly overcome with seven years of pent-up emotions that I no longer have the will to contain. Every question that’s burned inside me since I left for Raleigh comes screaming to the surface.
“Why did you push me away?” I cry, needing to know now more than ever why he stopped loving me. The tears sting my eyes, but I blink them back. “Just tell me. Tell me what I did, Gabe. So I can move on.”
His eyes move away from me. “You didn’t do anything.”