THIEF: Part 3 by Kimberly Malone Read Free Book Online Page A

Seven
     
    “I’m sorry about last night.”
                  I raise an eyebrow.“Sorry?”
                  “Yeah, you know….”Alex blushes, taking a sip from his Jack and Coke.“For himping out.”He takes another sip—more of a gulp, actually—and sighs, “I wanted to kiss you a lot earlier in the night.”
                  This makes me smile, like a lot of what Alex says.“It’s okay.I was just getting a little worried.That you weren’t interested, or whatever.”
                  “No, no, I’m definitely—”He stops himself, embarrassed.“I mean, I like you a lot.And…I hated the thought of you thinking I didn’t.”
                  I clink my glass to his, the tiny ping the loudest noise in the restaurant.Planting trees with his mom took longer than he expected, so we're eating in that lull between meals, when everywhere’s dead and all the servers are outside smoking.Not that it mattered to me, having to wait around a few more hours for him.Most of my days are the same, lately.With two exceptions: these dates with Alex, which I hope will form a pattern, and my texts from Fiona, with updates on her not-so-romantic life.
                  We broke up , she texted me this morning. Congrats on ur date tho.Really—i know it prbly doesn’t sound like im happy for u. but i am.
                  I wasn’t sure what to say—still being fairly new to this friendship thing—so I answered, Sorry, wish i could be there in person. did he admit it?              
                  Yeah , she answered. He said he’s known for a while but didn’t want to hurt me.What a joke.
                  I’d written back a generic condolence, but didn’t hear from her after that.Maybe I should call, but I’m not sure how to handle this kind of thing long-distance.At least face-to-face, you can offer a hug and some alcohol, and let things run their course.
                  “So,” Alex says, passing me some bread from the basket between us, “I feel like we mostly talked about me last night, where I’ve been and stuff.”He bites into a piece, thickly buttered, and nods at me.“Tell me more about you.”
                  I bite into a slice of bread too, if only to stall.“What do you want to know?”
                  Alex shrugs.“Your childhood?”
                  “Crappy,” I answer, too quickly.Alex raises an eyebrow, so I backtrack.“My dad wasn’t around.Like…ever.My mom wasn’t even sure who he was.”
                  “Oh, I’m sorry,” he says.“That must have been hard, just you and her.”
                  “Actually,” I say, taking a long sip of my sweet tea, “things would have been a lot easier if it had been just us.”I’m suddenly craving alcohol, but a second date doesn’t seem like the best time to break out my fake IDFor some reason, I hadn’t cared with Silas—in fact, telling him all about my life had come easily.I like Alex a lot, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t replicate that comfort I felt with Silas.Not just yet, at least.
                  I play with the water ring from my glass, pooling on the table, and add, “Mom dated around a lot.We, uh…never saw eye-to-eye on her boyfriends.”
                  “I’m sorry,” he says again.“So…were you and your mom close?”
                  I shake my head.“I wanted to be.But….”I think of the day I stopped trying, the day my mom made it clear she wasn’t on my side, would never be; the day I finally admitted to her that Gordon, her sleazy live-in boyfriend, had raped me.She chose to believe his lies, and I left, on my sixteenth birthday.We’d barely spoken since then, until this past summer.The last few months she’d been alive.And even then, we never said what we’d really wanted to