Damaged, The Romance of Nick and Layla (Part 4) by Crystal Cierlak Read Free Book Online Page B

golden shade of tan, less so than in his younger days, and it still sets off those amazing blue eyes I’ve known for ten years.
    The black fabric of his fitted tee clings to the sinuous lines of his neck, shoulders and arms, and to his torso where I can see he’s lost weight. He’s fit and muscular, and for a moment it occurs to me I should be mad at him for looking better than ever despite our shared tragedy.
    “Nice shirt,” he says, and I think I see the start of a smug smile on his face. I look down at myself and remember it’s his shirt I’m wearing.
    “I need to buy clothes today,” I respond, looking up at him again impassively.
    “Don’t you have clothes at home?”
    “I’m not going back there,” I shake my head.
    “So you’re what ? Never going back?” he asks, a hint of incredulity in his voice.
    “No. I think I need to start over again. Or maybe for the first time. I’m not sure,” I say, unsure of the words even as they come from my mouth.
    “It’s not like you can’t afford it,” he says, and with a touch of bitterness. I look up at him again through furrowed brows.
    “What do you mean? How do you know that?”
    He gives me a knowing look. “Your alimony?” The way he says the word alimony makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Sorry,” he says, as if sensing he’s said it strangely. “You know what I mean.”
    “Nick the spousal support was your idea. I just signed a piece of paper.”
    Something shifts in his eyes and I can practically see them icing over with some unspoken thought. “You just signed a piece of paper and there went my life.”
    Ugh . “Do you want your money back or something?”
    “No, of course I don’t!” he interjects. In a flash the ice is gone, replaced instead with fire. “It’s not about the money, Lay. I’d give you all of it if I knew it would keep you safe. You know that.”
    I know nothing, I think to myself. The memory of endless meetings with us and our lawyers is somewhere in the cobwebs of our past history. Negotiations and settlements. I didn’t have a taste for any of it and didn’t care if he left me penniless. But he wouldn’t hear of it and practically threw his money at me.
    The waiter arrives with our food and neither of us say anything more as we eat. Once in a while I sense Nick’s eyes on me, but I never look back up at him. It’s too strange. I’ve known this man for a third of my life; he was my first and only everything. First and only love. First and only husband. First and only lover.
    Now we sit like strangers and I’m barely able to look at him with any remote possibility of self possession. The last four years have practically been a lifetime and I hardly know what to say to him anymore.
    The memories of the previous night, however, are between us like the proverbial elephant in the room. Truth be told he was there for me when I truly needed him, even if that need was precipitated upon his presence in the first place.
    I set my fork down and look up to find him staring at me once more, and it’s evident he’s running through his own line of questions, mentally deciding which one he’ll ask first.
    “Why are you here?” I ask him finally once our plates are cleared from the table. I half expect him to say something flippant or sarcastic, but his face is pensive and for once I think he might take me seriously.
    He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “When I saw you at the airport,” he begins, “it was as if the universe was answering a question. I was in New York when it dawned on me it was your birthday today, and before I knew it I was texting your number. I wasn’t even sure you hadn’t changed it. When you didn’t respond after the third text it didn’t even occur to me that I could possibly have been texting a disconnected number, or that it belonged to someone else. I knew it was still yours. Next thing I knew I was buying a ticket to California. And there you were.”
    I take