21. Aurora: Two of Them? I’m Exhausted.

Chapter twenty-one

Aurora – Two of Them? I’m Exhausted.

As I step out of the door, something hard hits me in the face. Shocked, I look sideways to see a little girl of around six staring at me with a shocked, very sorry expression on her face. I rub my smarting nose to check if there is blood. There is none, but my entire face hurts from the assault of her ball flying smack onto it.

“I’m really sorry, ma’am. I didn’t mean to. It was an accident.” Twiddling her tiny fingers, her large blue eyes stare at me in fear and remorse.

Totally impressed with her good manners, I take hold of her hand and move us away from the entrance. I bend down to her level and smile. “It’s okay, sweetie. It was an accident. You didn’t do it on purpose.”

She smiles shyly at me, revealing an adorable gap where her left front tooth is missing. She pecks me on the cheek and runs away, her pigtails bouncing happily after her. I savor her sweetness, the pain forgotten. Kids really do have a way of making you feel better.

A shadow falls over me, blocking the sunlight. I look up to see Alex smiling down at me. He extends a hand towards me but I ignore it as I stand up and sigh, turning to leave immediately.

“I see you haven’t changed—being nice and all,” he says, as I move past him, his hand falling limply at his side.

“If you count forgiving a little girl for an accident as being nice , okay then,” I reply sarcastically. “It was simply the normal thing to do. She apologized for the ball she threw. It was an accident. End of story. What should I have done?” I ask rhetorically.

“I don’t know. Flick her forehead for making a silly mistake?” He answers me, in a duh tone, as if the answer is boldly written right in front of me. “Next time, she’ll refrain from throwing balls in a public space. This isn’t her dad’s backyard,” he finishes, with a raised brow, and I whip around sharply to face him, appalled at his response.

“ Really ?” I ask, disbelief coloring my voice.

He raises his brows, a slow grin creeping onto his lips.

“You still don’t know how to take a joke. Come on! I was joking. You know me better than that, Mami,” he says, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“Do I?” I ask, shooting him a look and swatting his hand off my shoulder. “And please, stop calling me Mami. It’s highly uncomfortable.” We stop by my car and I turn to him with an air of finality.

“So… this is my stop. Goodbye,” I say, already unlocking my car .

“Not so fast, Aurora. I might be wrong, but are you avoiding me?” I roll my eyes at his stupidity, wondering where and how I dropped hints about actually wanting to be in his presence.

“I am not avoiding you. I simply do not want to be in your presence,” I respond, sarcastically.

“Isn’t that just the same thing?” he asks, his hand latching on to mine that is about to open the car door. His hands used to be very warm, but the hand currently on mine is cold and foreign, not a hint of familiarity in it. I shake it off, glaring at him.

“Look, Alex. I really do not want anything to do with you. Stay away from me. I don’t know why you came to Birchwood, but we both know it wasn’t to say hi to me. Finish whatever you came here to do and leave me be.” And as an afterthought, I add, “Please.”

He stares at me with an expression I can’t decipher and opens his mouth to probably spew more nonsense from the stink hole he calls a mouth, but I beat him to it.

“Alex, stop.” He sees something in my expression, and he keeps his mouth shut. He clenches his jaw so hard I’m sure his teeth are grinding. He glares at me maliciously, nods, and leaves.

I breathe a sigh of relief and sag against my car, turning to absentmindedly stare into it through the window, seeing nothing. I feel like hiding away for a long time and then coming back when everything has blown over. Absentmindedly, I continue to stare, unseeing, into space.

Sounds of footsteps have me whirring around, ready to yell at Alex.

But I find Jake instead, staring at me angrily. I sigh and roll my eyes, opening the door. I am done with everyone and everything today. All I want right now is to go home, have a refreshing bath, and watch a good comedy to brighten what is left of the weird day I’m having.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Jake snaps, as he slams the door shut. I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration.

“What do you want, Jacob?” I spit out his name sarcastically, imitating Sophia.

“What do I want? How could you? Why did you leave so suddenly, leaving me alone with Sophia?” His dark eyes flash like that of an avenging angel, glaring at me wildly.

“Uh . . . you made it obvious you wanted to talk to her, didn’t you, Jacob ?” He narrows his eyes at my tone.

“Stop saying my name like that and stop calling me Jacob . Why would you just leave like that, Aurora?”

I roll my eyes and fold my arms around my torso. “And why not? It seems to work pretty well. And why shouldn’t I leave? You made it obvious you wanted to talk to Sophia. I respected your wishes, and I left. It wasn’t me who dropped your hand off my shoulder. You did! Seeing how you still don’t want to hurt your little girlfriend’s feelings, give me a reason why I should stick around to hear you plan the universities you want your six kids to attend and the color you’ll be choosing for your picket fence!”

I yell, beyond pissed. “Jacob seemed to work when she called you that, seeing how fast you dropped your hand from my shoulder, as if I have a contagious skin disease. I hope it works here again, Jacob. If you would excuse me, I want to go home.” I try to open the door again, but he promptly holds it shut .

I scowl at him. Seriously, what’s with these dudes and my car door?

“Is that what this is all about? Because I dropped my hand from your shoulder? Look, it wasn’t intentional. I did it so I could . . .”

“Could what, Jake? First, you tell me everything is none of my business, and you try to lie your way out of it, then you go ahead and pull off that stunt. You make it very obvious what you want. It really is none of my business.”

“And that’s why you’re here holding hands and being chummy with Alex? Why is your face all red, huh?” he asks with a scowl, his dark eyes almost dark slits on his face.

I suck in a breath. Did he just try to turn the situation against me?

“Don’t you dare turn this on me, Jake! I don’t know what you saw but believe me when I say you need your eyes thoroughly checked. I wasn’t holding hands with Alex, and I definitely wasn’t getting ‘chummy’ with him. You saw what you wanted to see. And my face is red because I got a ball thrown into it by a little girl! Not that I need to explain myself to you in the first place!”

“If you would excuse me, I really have to get going before I say or do things that I will end up regretting.” I glare harshly at him and realize that my breaths are coming out in short pants and I have tears ready to fall.

Jake pulls at his hair, a growl ripping through his throat, muttering words too low for me to hear.

“Aurora, can we please talk about this? I came out here with the intention of talking to you. To reason with you. Or at least fix a time and place for that. I didn’t come out to the parking lot to exchange words and yell,” he says calmly, but his eyes tell another story, thunderstorms roiling beneath his beautiful dark eyes.

Ugh! Get a grip woman, this isn’t the time to think about his eyes and how beautiful they are.

I go quiet for a while, mulling over his words. He is right. Like it or not, we’re both involved with everything going on, and we have to decide what to do with it, especially the misunderstanding with his family about me being his girlfriend. I sigh and nod my head but realize that now is not the time. I need to go home and put an icepack over my face to keep it from bruising.

“Okay, Jake. But now is not a good time. I’m tired, confused, hungry, and agitated. And when you’re ready to talk, you know where to find me.”

“Where? Your bar, the pastry shop, or the coffee shop? Or a petting zoo?” he asks, with a silly grin on his face. I stomp on his foot. Hard. He jumps, laughing. Seriously, this guy needs a personality check.

“Be careful woman, this foot costs a lot.” I smile at his silliness, my anger going poof like a popped balloon. I push him to the side gently, so I can access the car door, opening it with ease this time .

“See you around, Jacob,” I say, as I jump into my car, laughing as he groans at the name. I roll down the windows as soon as I turn on the ignition. He closes the door and leans in through the window.

“See you later, Aurora,” he says softly and tucks in a strand of hair behind my ear. I feel myself turn red and he laughs, stepping back. I zoom off, ignoring the flip flops happening in my stomach.

I dial Brittney and Ryan on a conference call, my plan to have an alone time long forgotten.