A Reason To Stay Read Online Free PDF Page A

her phone off vibrate, not being prepared to talk to Darren. She figured the later it became, the more ridiculous it would sound to go over to his house. After all, she never stayed two nights in a row. To stay again would have broken her unwritten non-commitment rules.

CHAPTER THREE

    The Root of the Problem

    Evening had managed to swallow the last bits of light, leaving the sky a shade of dusky purple. Elise’s headlights reflected off the bumper of a familiar BMW that sat outside her house. She held her breath, hoping it wasn’t who she thought it was. She swung into her driveway and flexed her best fake smile before climbing from the car and heading to the front door. Something to distract the worry that she feared lay deep inside her eyes.
    Darren stood up from her porch step, holding a bouquet of crimson colored roses. His top two shirt buttons were undone and his blue paisley tie was pulled down from his neckline. The tiny cowlick by the part in his hair was tousled, a little messed up from the late hour. He had quite a grip on the flowers. White baby’s breath peeked around each bud. It wasn’t easy being irritated with someone holding twelve velvet long stems of perfection. He leaned over and kissed her a full-lip, sticky kiss. The kind that made her legs tremble.
    “I’ve missed you more today than all of last week put together.” He took her bags and handed her the flowers.
    She gave him what she hoped was a gracious smile and put her key into the front door lock. It was officially nine months and one day since they had begun dating. Pangs of ‘I told you so’ from her conscience fought with her heartstrings, and she was finding it difficult to think straight.
    “You must have. What are the roses for? Didn’t we say I’d call?” She hoped she didn’t sound ungrateful. She just didn’t like unplanned dates. They tended to mess up groundwork for ensuing breakup speeches.
    He helped her inside and set her bags on the sofa. The one with her laptop fell over on its side. “You did say you’d call. But I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I know I won’t see you next week or maybe I’m just completely crazy about you. I just had to see you tonight.” He picked her up after she laid the roses down and swung her around. His hug had all the intensity of a vice.
    He set her back down and lifted her chin before consuming her with the kind of savory kiss you see at train stations before couples depart from one another. She came up for air and tried her best to avoid his stare. The one that tried to hold her to something.
    “Darren, you’re crazy. I’m just going for a few days. I’ll be back, you know.”
    He stood beside her, even though she tried to sidestep him a couple times. He ran his finger down her arm, keeping her close. That musky smell wafted to her nose. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you today. How our relationship hasn’t moved forward in a long time.”
    Warning : relationship talk in progress. Take no prisoners. Abort, abort, abort . “Darren,” she started, putting her hand up to deflect the commitment monster that was trying to eat her alive. “We are just fine.” She tried her best to finish this up as a one-sided conversation. “ I’m fine. We go out, we stay over...” She shook her head, wanting to loosen some other positives of this non-committal thing they had going, out of her brain.
    He put his finger to her lips. “ Shhh , Elise. I know how you feel. But I never get the chance to tell you how I feel. Just let me get it out.”
    She pressed her lips together, forcing her mouth to stay shut. She braced herself for the raw emotions she knew he had to release. Why was she so anti-emotion? They were like an allergy for which she had no antihistamine for treatment.
    He led her to the sofa and pulled her down to sit. She fought it with all her might. Maybe a fire would erupt in the bedroom, or a meteor would crash down in her kitchen. Anything to avoid what he was about