Relativity by Lauren Dodd Read Free Book Online Page A

and start scooping the mixture onto two plates.
    “Thanks for calling about the shoes. I’ll just get them and go,” I say, looking around for the shoes. His company is obviously going to be here soon.
    “You’re welcome, but I was hoping you’d stay for dinner,” he says, setting the plates on the table and holding out a chair for me.
    “This is for me?” I ask, amazed, taking in the perfectly set table with new eyes.
    “Of course, silly. I’m not going to invite you over at a certain time then make you watch me eat alone,” he teases.
    I sit down in the chair he’s offering and let him gently push me to the table. He sits down across from me and we start to eat the amazing meal of salad, spaghetti, and breadsticks that he cooked. He tells me about his four years in the Navy as I proceed to pig out, knowing I should be embarrassed for eating like this in front of him but the food is so good that I just don’t care. Besides, eating disguises the nervousness that I still feel being around him.
    I help him clean up the dishes, twirling around the same space like a performer out of Cirque de Soleil to avoid touching him.
    “All done,” he says, putting the leftovers in his tiny fridge. “Let’s go sit down.”
    I know I should tell him that I have to go but I feel so comfortable here with him. It is strange how I feel so attracted to him, yet I feel I could tell him anything.
    We move to opposite ends of the couch and plop down, groaning from our full bellies.
    “Thanks for dinner. You’re a great cook,” I tell him, closing my eyes, stretching my legs out in front of me and my arms behind me. When I open my eyes, I catch Knox staring appreciatively between my legs. My dress rode up when I stretched and now it covers to just below my panties. I jerk it back down which causes him to quickly look away. The air changes and I realize that last night had nothing to do with the vodka. The vodka was just an excuse to explain away all these unfamiliar feelings I was having about someone I thought I knew so well.
    I see Knox swallow hard and fight with himself internally and I realize that I wasn’t imagining things last night. He wanted me, too. But he felt like he would be taking advantage of me because I had been drinking and the emotional weight of the funeral on my shoulders.
    “I should go,” I say, realizing that the situation was dangerous before with just my feelings. Now, realizing Knox’s, the situation is downright combustible.
    “Please don’t,” he says, squeezing his eyes shut.
    I bound off the couch and toward the door, reaching down to my shoes, exactly where I left them last night. I’m about to turn the knob on the door, to leave this loft and all of these crazy feelings behind forever, when I feel his hand on my shoulder.
    “Ripley,” he says in a tone so hypnotizing that I drop my hand and slowly turn to face him.
    “I feel like I’m losing my mind,” I confess, his hand still on my shoulder, electrifying my entire body. I thought scenes like this in a book or movie were just the work of an imaginative writer, I never thought for a second that I could actually feel like this.
    “You know why we can’t do this, don’t you?” he asks, searching my eyes.
    I nod, staying silent. He is going to stop this before it even starts again. I know that I should appreciate the fact that he is trying to be the clear head and not tangle our friendship up with sex, but I’m tired of feeling like I don’t have any control over my life. Ever since Mom’s death, people have been hovering over me trying to make every little decision for me. And this decision I want to make for myself, whether I’m making a huge mistake or not.
    “Because I’m younger than you. I’m just a kid,” I pout, throwing his initial greeting back at him.
    He shakes his head furiously. I know how to get my way with him and as wrong as I know it is, I just can’t stop myself.
    “It has nothing to do with your age.