Page 92 of Valentino

With the sound of his breathing, the scent of his cologne, and the feeling of him being close my heavy eyelids win.

The bed dips and my eyes spring open, Val is getting up.

“What are you doing?” I stammer as I reach for him.

He looks over his shoulder at me. “I….” He rolls his lips as if searching for words. “I came in to check on you and….”

“It’s okay.” I tap the bed beside me. “Lie back down, I want to talk to you for a minute.”

“I don’t have time….”

“Valentino,” I say, sterner. “Lie back down.”

He begrudgingly lies back down. “What?” he sighs.

“Don’t give me that attitude.” I sit up and put his blanket back over him.

“What is it, Anna?”

“You said something the other day and I want to ask you about it.”

He rolls his eyes.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me,” I snap. “And face me when I’m talking to you.”

“My God,” he huffs as he rolls onto his side to face me. “What?”

“What did you mean when I asked you if we were okay?”

His eyes hold mine and he gives a half-hearted shrug. “I don’t remember.”

“Yes you do.” I fiddle with the blanket. “You said that we haven’t been okay for a long time.”

“Did I?”

He knows exactly what he said.

“Yeah, and you said that we haven’t been okay since I….” My voice trails off, not wanting to say the words.

“Fucked him.” He finishes the sentence for me.

“Do you have to be so crude?”

“It is what it is.” His eyes hold mine.

“You seem angry about it.”

“Nope.” He shrugs again. “I don’t care.”

“You don’t care?”

He stays silent.

My anger explodes, he cannot put this on me. I am not in the wrong here. “I waited for you to ask me out for seven years, Val. Seven. Years.”

My eyes search his.

“And every time I saw you, I died a little bit inside because I was so besotted with you and you didn’t even see me.” Unexpected emotion runs through me. “Not once.”