It's Only Love

Chapter Nine

Sorry for the delay.

:/

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John returns. He senses something different in her manner as she curls her fingers around a cup of tea in his kitchen.

"What happened while I was gone?"

"Not much." She hesitates. "Connor came to apologize."

A fury rises in John's chest. So, after over a month, the rat crawls back! He quells his anger and manages to say, "And?"

"And, nothing. He apologized and I told him to frack off. Well, not in those words."

John manages to grin weakly. "So, you didn't forgive him."

She snorts. "Like that bastard's worth forgiving. Next time he comes around I'm going to throw something at him."

"That-a-girl. What..." He pauses. "What if you weren't going out with me? What then?"

"Well, it played out like this: he came in, begged my forgiveness, and then asked me to go out with him. I told him I'm not a cheater and I was seeing someone else. Didn't say a name but I figure he guessed it was you. Were I not going out with you, I would have had to tell him he's a bastard, get out of my house, and don't come back."

"So you'd be mad at him even if you didn't have me."

She raised her gaze to meet his. "Doesn't matter who I see--you, Daniel Carter, or anyone else. I hate a cheater and I'd never go back to one."

She knows him too well already. John has a history of cheating.

"Those girls were different," he assures her. "You're too pretty to lose."

She doesn't reply. In hesitation, he adds as a tease, "As long as you sleep with me."

Her expression darkens. He sighs. Why is he always so hopeless with women? He changes the subject quickly. "Did you find any universities?"

Obviously the wrong question. "One. It's kind of out of the question though."

He raises his eyebrows. She turns away and looks out the window. "Alabama State University. In America. I can't go. It'd be too far away from family--and too far away from you." It's the first halfway romantic thing she's said throughout tea, but she says it in a hollow, hopeless voice. "It's the only one with the theater program I want, though."

John says nothing.

Madeline says nothing.

Two months is a long time not to see a person.