One morning after I’d given up on him joining me, I ran my normal two miles and was starting back up my steps, when he emerged from his house. He gave me a tight smile and a half-nod and started jogging in the direction I’d come from.
Awkward wasn’t even close to describing how pathetic our interactions were. They were downright painful.
I started to look at different homes in the area because I just didn’t think I could handle living with him so close, yet so far away, for much longer. I would rather give up my cute and affordable, perfectly-located historical home and find somewhere else if it meant I could start putting myself back together.
I was always on alert. Wondering, pondering, fantasizing. Wishing that Luke would just come bursting through my door, but…
I needed to stop.
I needed to get a hold of myself.
Rounding the corner of Church Street, carrying a take-out bag from The Chelsea (with enough food in it to feed a small village—don’t judge me. I was still wallowing, even weeks later), I stilled my feet. My eyes found the one man I wasn’t expecting to see.
Grant.
It had been months since I’d seen him last. I mean, my last encounter with him had been in his apartment with jelly in his hair, cuddling a blow-up doll. Agh. The memory of Luke and me flashed through my brain and I physically cringed.
That was the first night I had felt that we truly connected, and it was the first night that I had started to really develop feelings for him. I shook my head, dissolving the memory, and then my eyes met Grant’s. His eyes went wide and his mouth parted before it formed into a scowl.
I mean, he knew where I lived, so if he had wanted to pick a fight with me, why hadn’t he just come over and done it? Or just called me?
Had he been waiting for the perfect moment?
Which apparently was right now since he started to travel the necessary distance towards me. I gave him a quick wave but he didn’t wave back.
Okay, so this wasn’t going how I’d planned. I’d been prepared to say, “Oh, relax. It was a small prank. Your hair has grown back. Blah, blah, blah.” But instead, I took off in the opposite direction. I literally ran from him, while trying to hold in a laugh that was bubbling up from deep inside of me.
My life was a joke.
A big fat joke!
I got a few yards away, rounded another corner, and then slammed into something extremely hard.
“Oomph,” I wheezed, still clutching my brown paper take-out bag. Catching my breath, I squeaked, “Excuse me!” and hands curled around my arms. I turned my head up and instantly lost my breath.
Two sea-glass green eyes stared back at me, a small smile playing at his lips.
“Clumsy much, Doc?”
I opened my mouth to speak but then I heard Grant yell my name from a distance. Luke’s head swiveled towards the voice.
“Run!” I gasped.
Luke looked confused, but I snagged his hand and we both took off sprinting through the courtyard.
We kept running, striding in pace with one another, until I felt that the coast was clear.
I breathed, “Okay, I think we’re good.” I looked back and didn’t see or hear anything unusual. Only passing cars and a bird chirping in the distance.
“Who was it?” Luke asked, out of breath. “Do I need to kick someone’s ass?”
My heart was pounding excitedly in my chest at our close quarters. I swallowed and grinned.
“Grant.”
He laughed, “What? What did you do now?”
I shook my head. “Nothing! But he spotted me and I got scared so… I ran.” Luke boomed with laugher.