of my crimes, so I hope you’ll take it in the spirit I’ve given it. It’s just a little something because I thought it was pretty and I thought it would look good on you. But then, everything looks good on you,” he said, his hands clenched at his side.
She could tell he wasn’t angry. Instead, he was holding himself back. He probably wanted to put the scarf on her. She probably would have let him in the past, but everything between them now was too raw, too new, too dangerous. So she tossed it around her neck, striking a pose. She was flirting, and surely she shouldn’t be. But it was so easy, so familiar to play like this with him. And it felt so good, even for a sliver of a moment in time.
“Thank you. I love it,” she said, stroking the fabric. His breath hitched as she touched it, and she let go quickly, reaching for the glass of soda and taking another sip. Her hands felt unsteady. She looked at him again. His hands were in his pockets now, and he was shifting back and forth on his heels.
“But Shan, that’s not all I have to say. That just barely scratches the surface.”
“Okay, what else is there?”
“Listen, I don’t even know how to begin to say I’m sorry for breaking your heart, as you said last night,” he said, holding her gaze. “What I can tell you is this. It is my biggest regret. And you know I never talked about the specifics of our relationship when I was doing standup in college,” he said, his voice stripped bare, the way he’d always talked to her when he wanted her to know he was serious. She trusted that voice. She knew it cold, and she knew the promise he’d made to keep the details of their private life out of his comedy. So she’d never be the girlfriend that a comedian used as the butt of a joke in his routines. “That remains the case. But there was one bit that I did, and I suppose I was always hoping you would see it. I did it so you might see it. But you told me last night you never did, and I’d really like to show it to you because I think this says everything I want to start to say. Will you watch it?”
Shannon gulped, and nodded. She didn’t push back as she had when Colin had started to show her the video. She didn’t resist. Maybe that made her a fool, or maybe it just made her ready. Four million others had seen it, but she was the only one who’d watch it as the intended viewer.
“Show it to me,” she said, her voice soft, nerves trickling through it. He dug into his pocket for his phone. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but she was incapable of staying far away from Brent, not when he showed this sweet, tender, loving side. She’d come there only to apologize, never expecting he’d feel the need to do so, too. Not after his quick retort last night. Now that he’d begun saying his mea culpa, she wanted all of it.
She crossed her legs and leaned back against the bar, her spine digging into the metal as the clip began—the part she’d seen. He strolled across the stage talking about ‘that guy’ at a business meeting who gets caught with porn on his screen during a presentation. Then he talked about how he effectively became that guy when he was meeting with the head of a hotel chain.
There was something so surreal about this moment. She was with flesh-and-blood Brent, and she was watching Brent from a year ago, too.
“You’re in two places at once,” she teased, as she glanced at him then back to the screen. She stopped talking as the clip moved past the point where she’d hit stop the first time, when he’d said he Facebook stalked his ex.
The on-screen Brent tapped his chest, the look on his face one of utter disdain for his own antics. “Ever done that to your college girlfriend? Searched for her on Facebook? Looked up her pictures?” he asked, looking at the audience, as the camera swept out to capture several of them nodding.
“Yeah. Me too. I looked up my girl. Spent a ton of hours trying to figure out what she was up to. Translation—is she still hot and gorgeous, and did she marry some other