Chapter 32

 

 

Ashamed. Embarrassed. That’s how she felt walking up to Bryson and Kalina’s house a few days later, hoping to talk to her sister-in-law about what she’d done and seeking to rectify it. Bryson opened the door and invited her in.

“What’s wrong, Candy?”

“Nothing. Where’s Kalina?” she asked, not answering his question. This wasn’t the kind of discussion a girl was supposed to have with her brother.

“She’s upstairs.” He called for her then asked Candice for a second time, “Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”

“I didn’t say anything wasn’t wrong, Bryson. It’s a girl thing. I need to talk to Kalina about it.”

“Hey, Candy. What’s up?” Kalina said coming downstairs.

“Hey, I need to talk to you for a minute.”

“Oh, okay. Sure. Come on upstairs.”

Candice went up and when she stepped into Kalina’s bedroom, she said, “I messed up big time.”

“What happened?”

“I told you I was going to see Quinton and I should’ve listened to you when you told me not to. Anyway, he tried to kiss me.”

“You kissed him!”

“Shh…keep your voice down. I don’t want Bryson to overhear this.”

“You kissed him, Candy?” she asked softer.

“No. He tried to kiss me and I got out of there. I told Kurt everything, but he was furious because I lied and told him I was going to be hanging out with you and the girls but I was at Quinton’s house.”

Kalina’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head when she said, “You went to his house!”

Candice could only drop her head.

“If you put yourself in Kurt’s position, you’d be furious, too!”

“I would, definitely. So how do I fix this?”

“First you need to ask yourself who you want?”

Candice frowned. “You know who I want.”

“Yes, I know who you want, but there was something about Quinton that made you lie to your husband and sneak around behind his back.”

“I thought I could handle being alone with him and I felt the need to apologize—”

“Apologize for what? I told you before you went you had nothing to apologize for. I think you wanted to go over there because you wanted to and honestly, if you still have feelings for him, Candy—”

“I don’t. It’s not feelings. It’s more like I’m at a loss because I’ll never know how good me and Quinton could’ve been together. Just because I have those feelings doesn’t mean I don’t love Kurt.”

“No, but it does mean you’re getting dangerously close to ruining your marriage.”

“What should I do now? I think I really hurt him, Kalina. Kurt didn’t deserve that.”

“He needs to know that you love him. That you’ll choose him over all the others. That he doesn’t have to worry about anyone stepping in between you two and causing a disruption.”

Candice nodded. “You’re right. Now, I need to figure out a way to do that.”