Worth the fight

Chapter 25

Elle

“Good morning, Regina.” I hand my friend a tall caramel latte as I walk in even later than my usual late.

“Looks like you had a good night.” Regina raises one eyebrow with a knowing smirk.

I look down at myself, wondering if something is out of place. Is my shirt on backwards? How could she know? “Are you joking? Is it that obvious?”

“Well you don’t usually speak in singsong.” She winks at me as I walk around her desk and lean against her file cabinet.

“Nico came over last night.” I sigh, thinking back to the sight of him in my kitchen making me breakfast this morning wearing nothing but sweats that hung low on his waist in a sinfully delicious place.

“I guessed that by the just-fucked smile on your face.”

“I thought it was my singsongy voice that gave me away?”

“That, and the flowers that came fifteen minutes before you walked in.”

My day goes by in a rush of calls and work I hadn’t planned on doing. But Leonard is due back soon and I want to make his first few days back easy, so I neglect my own files and spend more time with his.

I call Nico in the afternoon and thank him for the flowers. I love that he sent me wildflowers instead of something more common like roses. They’re beautiful and colorful and befitting of the sender.

Regina and I both stay late and we order in dinner at the office. It’s almost nine and our dinners are cold before we finally sit down in the conference room to take our first bites.

“Does he know?” Regina’s usually direct and sarcastic voice is gentle and apprehensive. She knows what bringing up the past can do to me, so she steadies for my response.

“No.”

Regina looks at me concerned. “Don’t you think he’ll understand...with what happened to him?”

I do. I really do think he’ll understand for some reason. But I’m just not ready to say the words out loud yet. “Don’t start, Regina. It’s new and I’m not avoiding it, it just hasn’t come up.”

“It will never come up, unless you bring it up. How many years did you spend with William and it never came up?”

I sigh heavily, I know she’s right, but I’m not ready for Nico to look at me differently. He’ll see someone different once he knows. Or worse, he’ll look at me with pity. The way he looks at me makes my heart skip a beat, something I’m only just learning to enjoy. Too many years of my life went by with me flatlining, trying to evade all emotions. It’s the first time I want to feel in a long time. Feel the highs and the lows and all that’s in between.

“I’m just not ready yet.”

Regina knows what I’ve been through, so she doesn’t push. But I know this isn’t the last that I’ll hear about it from her.