Keeping Secrets in Seattle - By Brooke Moss Page 0,46
out more than usual. I washed hair off my scissor blades furiously. If sexual tension were soap, my cutting equipment would be the most sanitary tools on the face of the earth.
“Looks fine,” Gabe called from the bathroom. “Hey, I thought we should finish the conversation we started a while back. You know, since we’re alone, and all.”
My stomach hardened, then sank to the bottom of my feet like a stone. I drew a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “You know, you’re pushing your luck. A free haircut…Korean food…what’s next? Am I going to have to wash your car?”
He reached out and cupped my face. “Thank you for the haircut. I appreciate it. And for the Korean food, too. You’re amazing, Vi.”
“All right.” I shoved my hands into my jeans pockets so he wouldn’t see that they were trembling.
“Come on—let’s go in the living room.” He sauntered past me, pulling a shirt over his head, and I imagined a sexy guitar riff punctuating his steps. Leave it to me to put a soundtrack to Gabe walking.
He sat down on his couch, and I sat down at the opposite end. “What did you want to tell me about that night with Cameron?”
My lead stomach returned. It was time. “I need to clarify some things.”
Gabe turned toward me so that our faces were now just a foot apart. “All right.”
I closed my eyes. “I flirted with him. And everyone saw me doing it. That’s why everyone was talking about it at school on Monday. But I didn’t do it because I liked him. I hated him.”
He frowned. “Why did you do it, then?”
“I wanted to get him back for being so awful to me. I became so full of myself that year.”
Gabe nodded. “Yeah. When we went back to school after you lost all that weight, you did get sort of…”
“Bitchy?” I finished for him.
He pressed his lips together. “I was going to say snobby.”
My eyes swam. “During those first few weeks of our junior year, I became my mother. For the first time in my life, I was turning heads. The other girls at school hated me because their boyfriends stared at me in the hallways and, most of all, because I had the attention of the two most popular boys in school.” When Gabe’s face wrinkled up, I added, “You and Cameron Hakes.”
He nodded. “I know. You changed a lot that year.”
“When Cameron took me downstairs after we danced, I was ready for the game to be over. I told him that I wanted to go back upstairs and find you.” My throat tightened.
“Why didn’t you?” Gabe asked, his voice hoarse.
I bit my lip, pleading with myself not to let my tears spill. I wanted to get through this. Had to get through this. “I didn’t want to be with him. I…” A tear slipped out, and I swiped at it angrily.
Gabe brushed at the moisture under my eye. “Vi…don’t. I hate seeing you cry. Come on.”
I turned into his hand, closing my eyes and pressing my mouth to his palm. He sucked in a sharp breath and cupped my other cheek with his other hand. His head leaned close to mine, and when our foreheads brushed together, a spark shot straight down into my chest.
When he spoke again, his voice was scarcely above a whisper. “Go on.”
I sniffed. “You have to know. I never meant to hurt you.”
Without warning, Gabe stood and stalked to the kitchen.
“Hey.” I jumped off the couch and followed him, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. His kitchen was darker than the rest of the apartment, and it was hard for me to see anything but his profile against the window. I sat on the counter a few feet away from him and watched him. “What the hell? You brought it up, and now you’re walking away?”
He shook his head, not looking at me. “We don’t call it the forbidden subject for nothing.” He filled a glass with water and took a long drink, then went on. “It took me so long to get over what you and Cam did. The whole time you were in Utah, actually.”
It stung when he said Cameron’s name.
“You have no idea what that did to me.” He gripped his glass tightly in his hand. “And then you just disappeared to your dad’s house. In friggin’ Utah. Without saying good-bye or…or how about this: I’m sorry I slept with your friend. Nothing. Why would you