“Are you taking all of us home?” Bridget looks up at Justin. “I mean isn’t it a little out of your way.”
Justin shakes his head and points between Andi and Bridget. “I’m dropping you two off at home.” He then pins his eyes on me. “And you and I will discuss why, again, you asked your brother to drive you and not me.”
I roll my eyes, not wanting to discuss this. I had effectively avoided the topic on Sunday, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it again. “Oh goodie. Something to look forward to.”
His glare doesn’t leave me. As we all gather our things and leave. The ride to drop off Bridget and Andi is tense but the two of them chatting in the backseat seems to cover most of it. Once we’re alone in the car the silence becomes unbearable.
“Listen, Justin.”
He holds up a hand. “Not now. Let’s wait until we get home.”
“No, I need to say this now. If you don’t like what I have to say, you can drop me off at my parent’s place. But I’m really hoping you’ll understand and we can just go home.”
He looks at me. “Okay, but before you say another word, just think about what you just said to me.”
I replay the last sentence in my head. “Oh.”
Chapter 11
Justin
I can see the moment her words click. It wasn’t something she said deliberately, but I do believe that she meant what she said. At least I hope so.
“Now tell me, why’d you ask your brother to pick you up when I was right there when you got the invite?”
“Justin, you didn’t exactly offer, and I don’t want to take advantage of you.” She moves deeper into her seat folding her legs.
“Those are two separate things.” I take a deep inhaling breath. I’m not angry and I don’t want to sound as if I am. “And I didn’t offer because I don’t want to force my way into your life either. For all I knew the three of you were going to share an Uber and didn’t want any men around. But that’s not the case, is it?”
“That’s not fair.” She huffs out, she’s obviously just as frustrated as I am. “I don’t want to take advantage of you. You have a very giving nature and it would be so easy to do just that. I didn’t want to seem needy.”
“If we’re going to give this a fair shot, we need to rely on each other.” I turn into the parking garage of my building and into my spot. I turn off the car but make no attempt to get out. Neither does she. “I don’t think you have it in you to take advantage of anyone. For fuck’s sake you’ve lived in a city with no family around for years. I know you can take care of yourself. I’m just saying if you need to call someone, let that someone be me.”
She opens the car door and gets out. At some point she’s going to wait for me to open it for her I hope. Something tells me we’re still worlds away from that. But the fact that she’s getting out means she wants to stay and not go back to her parents’ place.
I follow her and take her hand as we head up to my apartment. Once we’re inside she plops down on the couch. “Justin, I just feel that we have a very one-sided relationship. I noticed it in Vegas already. We did everything I wanted to do. I left it alone then, because you were experiencing the city through my eyes. But now that we’re here, I still don’t know much about what you like.”
With every word my shoulders tensed. It wasn’t that I wanted to please her all the time. I would do the things I wanted to do. I just didn’t know what those were. I wasn’t about to tell her that, though. But there were things I did enjoy.
“I like spending time with you.” I know it’s not what she wanted to hear, but it’s the truth. “I’ve learned in the past week that I also like taking care of my grandfather. I’m not sure he likes me taking care of him, though.”
“You’re really close to him.” I sit down next to her and she shifts to rest her head on my lap. “Have you two always been that way?”
Stroking her hair, I rest my head on the back of the couch. If I was going to tell her this story, I needed to be touching her, but I don’t think I can look at her. I won’t be able to handle her pity. “I’ve always known that I wanted to build things. Maybe not hands on. But I wanted to create, conceptualize. When I started high school, my dream was to go into city planning.
She doesn’t say anything or scoff, so I continue. “We were poor. I knew if I wanted to go to college, I needed to work my ass off to get a full ride. There was no way that my grandfather could afford to pay even part of it. I knew I could apply for student loans but what I wanted to do does not pay very well and I would be in debt until I retired if I didn’t get a scholarship.
“One evening, my grandfather made dinner. He dished four plates of food. Us kids each had a decent plate. Andi asked him why he wasn’t eating, and he told her he wasn’t hungry. It may have been true, but a few hours later, I took a break from studying and found him at the kitchen table eating a sandwich. At that moment I knew. We exchanged a look, nothing more. He’d gone without dinner so that each of us could have a decent meal. I wasn’t sure what to do with what
