Three days of radio silence from Sutton.
I’d clearly fucked this entire thing up.
I hadn’t pushed her since she ran out on me on Monday afternoon. She needed her space. She needed to figure this out for herself. Even if that meant she decided not to be with me. I didn’t want that option, and I was going to do what I could to avoid that, but if that was her choice, I would respect her enough to live by it.
Morgan had apologized for setting us up like that. She’d had good intentions, but it had totally botched whatever headway I’d been making. Now, Sutton was completely avoiding me…and Morgan, as far as she’d said. She felt really bad about the whole thing. But the fault still remained with me.
I needed to figure out what my next move would be. I couldn’t show up with her favorite flowers and hope for the best. I’d fucked that move up with my hangover. Half-cocked plans were out of the question.
Sutton was…special. I’d never cared for anyone like her. I mean, fuck, I wanted to stay in Lubbock, Texas, for her. This desolate, dusty desert was anything but ideal compared to where I’d lived in the past. It was probably as close as I could get to the opposite of New York City and San Francisco. And yet, when I thought about it, all I had was fondness. And she was the reason.
I’d told the truth when I said that opening up was hard for me. It felt a bit like taking a razor blade to a vein and hoping for the best. Once all my secrets were out, would I really be better for it? Or would it be my demise?
Those thoughts swirled through my head all day as I drudged through seemingly meaningless work memos.
My phone pinged next to me, and I realized that I’d completely neglected it again. I tended to internalize all my problems. When shit got tough, I would go into my head and forget that the outside world existed. It was an awesome quality for work, as I could dig in until I figured everything out. Not so great for life outside of Wright Construction.
I had several missed calls and a text from Katherine.
Funny story. I ran into Penn. He said he saw you and accidentally screwed up your life there. Everything okay? Coming home yet?
I gritted my teeth at the implication that New York was still home. I’d spent eight long years trying to put the city behind me and everything I’d been and done there along with it.
My sister, like Morgan, meant well…usually. Okay, maybe it was more like sometimes. She’d grown up on the Upper East Side, just like I had. No one left there unmarked by the black taint that permeated Fifth Avenue.
I kept scrolling. I’d respond some other time.
Then, I saw a notification flash on my screen.
Superhero Movie
Friday, 7:00 p.m.
Be there! Prepare for hot Hemsworth abs!
I blinked. Then, blinked again.
Sutton had surreptitiously added a note into my calendar for the second movie we’d planned to see together. With everything going on, it had completely slipped my mind.
Our first movie together had started this entire thing between us. She’d tried to cancel, worrying that it was a date when she wasn’t ready to start dating yet. Or at least, she hadn’t warmed to the idea. Then, it had ended in a kiss and snowballed from there. I didn’t know what she wanted now. I probably should let it go and reach out to her when she was ready. But this seemed like an opportunity.
My fingers stalled on the words I wanted to send to her. Would it be presumptuous to force myself into her life before she was ready? And what if she already had plans to take someone else? Did I even want to know if she was backing out?
Part of me wanted to push. But that hadn’t done me any good last time. Fuck, the last two times. It only pushed her further away. And I didn’t know how to bring her closer any other way. This was territory that I wasn’t familiar with. How could I reach someone who didn’t want to be reached?
I tossed the phone down onto my desk. I couldn’t do it. She needed to come to me. And she wouldn’t do that if I rushed back into her life. Plus, I wasn’t ready to hear if she was taking someone else. If she really meant everything that she’d said. Because more time I could give, but having her out of my life forever wasn’t an option. Not one I could stomach.
With my head buried in my work again, I was halfway through this memo when a new text buzzed from my phone.
I carelessly glanced over at it. Then, my eyes widened in shock.
We still on for the movie tomorrow?
Well, that was an unexpected text message. Sutton still wants to go to the movie with me? After all of this? I wasn’t about to turn that down or second-guess it in the least.
Yep. 7 p.m.?
See you there.
And that was that.
What the actual fuck?
After all that wondering, she just acted like nothing was out of the norm. Well, all I knew was that this movie was going to be really fucking interesting.
Our movie was at Alamo Drafthouse, as it had been last time. It was the kind of place where you showed up early even though it had assigned seating. The food was good, the atmosphere was fun, and the staff was excellent. I showed up twenty minutes before the show and waited for Sutton to arrive.
Couples and families passed me with giant smiles on their faces. One guy even wished me good luck. A girl made an aww sound when she saw the giant bouquet of daises I had in my hand. Apparently, I was a hit. I might as well be in a John Hughes movie, holding a boom box over my head, for all the attention it was getting me.
But it was Sutton’s face that made all the mild humiliation worthwhile. She was fighting a grin when she wandered up to me in jean shorts and a yellow tank top with a jean jacket tucked under her arm.
“Hey,” she murmured when she saw me.
“Hey. These are for you.”
She took them from me and blushed a pretty shade of pink. “You, uh, didn’t have to do this.”
“No guy ever has to buy a girl flowers. He does it because he wants to.”
“Well, this isn’t…you know. This is…just a movie.”
“Everything with you is more than just a just.”
She frowned down at the flowers and then nervously glanced around her, as if she didn’t want anyone to see her holding them. “Why don’t we get our seats?”
“Sure.”
Sutton pulled up our seats on her phone and led me into one of the large auditoriums and all the way up to the top row. Her favorite. We were the first people up there with a handful of other couples scattered around the room. A few were even dressed like the Avengers. Pretty in-depth cosplay, too. Impressive.
“Seems I forgot my costume,” I said, trying to break the thick layer of awkwardness that had formed between us.
Sutton made a noncommittal sound.
I sighed and figured I might as well break the ice for real. “I guess I should ask…why did you still come to this with me?”
“Well, I had the tickets,” she said, not meeting my eyes.
“You could have taken Annie.”
She shook her head. “Actually, I couldn’t. She’s at orientation this weekend for medical school. She’s super booked, doing…I don’t know…doctor things.”
“Oh, I see. I’m second choice again.”
“I suppose, last time, you were first choice because I was tired of Annie only being here to look at hot guys.”
“And this time?”
She shrugged. “This time…I don’t know.”
But, when she said it, she was looking at me. And I could see that she was being cautious around me, but she wasn’t pulling back. She wasn’t retreating. She was still at a comfortable distance. But we were here. Together. That was something.
“I’ll take it.”
The moment was broken by the cheery employee who came to take our orders. I got us a giant bowl of popcorn, two waters, and a root beer float for Sutton. He nodded his head at us and then disappeared once more.
Sutton turned her body to face me and sighed. “Okay. I’m not being entirely fair to you.”
“Do you have a reason to be fair to me?”
“It’s just that I feel like, when I first found out about you, I might have overreacted. I mean, I feel justified in my anger, but the things I said and did, that wasn’t right.”
“I understood where you were coming from with it all.”
She turned away from me and pulled on her jacket. I could see that this conversation was hard for her. She probably didn’t even want to be having it.
“I feel like I owe you the chance to explain. I don’t know that it will change my mind or make me feel differently, but I’ll never know if I don’t hear you out.”
I stared back at her in surprise. For the last week, I had been certain she was never going to let me explain. And my reasons for hiding my identity might not make her feel any better.
But at least she was giving me a second chance.
Giving us a second chance.