by Alice Tribue
Once we get home, Luca allows Tyler to help him to the couch while I go upstairs and set up one of the spare bedrooms for him. I put the bag that Kathy packed for him on the chair and lay out fresh sheets on the bed. I picked the only other bedroom that connects to a bathroom so that he doesn’t have to go far.
I find Luca lying on the couch, television remote in hand, flipping through the channels when I head back downstairs. He looks up when he hears me and gives me an almost shy smile.
“Where’s Ty?” I question, picking up an old knitted blanket that’s thrown over a chair.
“He went to pick up my pain meds and a few other things I need from home.”
“Here you go,” I say covering his bottom half with the blanket.
“Thanks.”
“This is weird, huh?”
“Little bit. I never imagined being disabled and at your mercy.”
This makes me laugh. “You know, I could really make you pay for being such a jerk all these years.”
“But then you’d be breaking the truce. Are you prepared to do that because I will recover eventually, and I might just make you pay, Ev.”
His threat sends an unexpected jolt of heat surging through me. I know he didn’t mean that to be sexual in nature, but holy shit, my body took it that way and I don’t understand its reaction.
“Relax,” I say, my brain urging my body to recover from its betrayal. “The truce remains intact.”
“Good because I really do want us to be friends. There’s really no reason we shouldn’t have been all along.”
“Why weren’t we?”
“I don’t know, Ev. I was just immature.”
I don’t push further, even though I feel like there’s more to it than he’s saying. There must be a reason for his reaction toward me all this time. As for me, I couldn’t help but to resent him because of his constant presence in Tyler’s life, for the countless time he would call for a favor or a problem and Tyler would leave me to go help him. There were times when I thought that he was doing it on purpose, finding excuses to summon Ty because he knew it pissed me right the fuck off. Maybe this truce we’ve formed will finally put an end to all of it. Maybe Luca and I can finally be civil around one another, finally be friends.
“I’m going to make some lunch, you hungry?”
“I could eat.”
“How about a sandwich?”
“Sounds great,” he says, settling back into the couch. I head into the kitchen to make lunch, and I spend the entire time thinking about his earlier threat and why I reacted the way I did. I love my husband, which makes my reaction even more disturbing to me. If I’m being honest, when I first met Luca at the student bookstore, before I met Tyler, I had liked him instantly. In those first few moments, I had hoped that he’d ask me out, but he didn’t, and when I met Tyler, I let go of that hope.
“That was a third of the money. The message you sent was uncalled for.” I stand in the kitchen, making my morning cup of coffee with my ear to the open window listening to Tyler on a phone call.
“I need more time…No. No. I need at least a week.” He sighs at whatever the person on the other line says. He’s obviously agitated; I can hear it in his tone. I peek out the window and spy him pacing back and forth. He runs a hand through his hair looking very worried. “Yeah, I’ll be in touch,” he says before hanging up.
“What was all that talk about money?” I probe when he comes inside. He looks up at me, face guarded, and I swear I could feel an invisible wall going up. “I wasn’t eavesdropping, Ty,” I say in my defense. “The window is open, and you weren’t exactly whispering.”
He relaxes his shoulders. “I’m working a case with my dad. I was speaking to opposing council about a settlement.”
“Oh. Okay.” I feel relieved that it was something work related.
“Where’s Luca?”
“Getting ready; he’s got his first physical therapy session today. I’m driving him.”
“Right. I’ll pass on breakfast; I have to get to the office.”
“Is everything okay between you and Luca? You’ve barely said two words to each other since he got out of the hospital.”
“We’re fine. I’m just busy, and he’s had a traumatic experience. I’m just giving him time to heal. It’s not like we can go shoot the shit, Everly.”
I nod, not satisfied with his answer but deciding to let it go. He’s too much on edge to get any information out of him now. I’ll have to try again another time. Something is wrong, I can tell. Tyler and Luca are inseparable¸ always have been, and over the last few days the tension between them has been obvious, and I feel like a spectator that started watching just a little too late. With a quick kiss goodbye, Tyler leaves and I prepare two travel mugs of coffee.
“Ty gone?”
I look up; my gaze lands on Luca standing in the doorway leaning on a cane and my stomach flutters. My first thought is that even disabled, he looks hot—and I have no idea where it came from or why all of a sudden I can’t control what I feel and think about him.
“Yeah, he just left. Are you ready to go?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
I give him a half smile and nod. I know this can’t be easy for him, when the bullet hit his leg, it tore through tendons making physical therapy necessary. I’m sure it can’t be fun, but the doctors say that with about six weeks of therapy, his leg should be good as new.
“Made you a cup of coffee to go.” I dangle the travel mug in the air like a prize.
“Just what I need.” He grins. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” I say, grabbing my purse and my car keys off the kitchen island.
“Let’s do this.” When I reach Luca, I grab hold of his arm wanting to help him out of the house and into the car. He looks down at my hand on him and something passes his features, I’m just not sure what. He levels his eyes on mine.
“It’s okay, Ev. I’ve got it.”
My cheeks heat with a twinge of embarrassment. “Sorry, I was just trying to help.”
“I know; it’s okay.”
“Can I at least open the car door for you?”
“Sure, Ev.” He chuckles. I kind of like when he calls me Ev, not many people do, Tyler certainly never does. He hops (literally hops) in the car, and I shut the door behind him as he settles the cane against his seat.
I pull out of the driveway and head out in the direction of the clinic.
“Thanks for doing this. I know it’s not easy having someone you can barely stand in your life and having to take care of them. I know you gave up a lot to be here, your honeymoon, your privacy.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. You should have never been dragged into this; it’s not cool.”
“It’s fine, Luca. It’s not like any of this is your fault.”
I look over at him and something flashes in his eyes. He looks angry for a moment but quickly masks his features.
“I know it’s not my fault but still…You’re really helping me out and taking the pressure off my parents, and I appreciate it.”
“I’m glad to do it,” I assure him with a smile. A truce with Luca is not something that I could ever foresee happening, but now that it has, I kind of like it. This is how I pictured things between us all those years ago when we first met. It’s how things should have been, but for some reason, we just couldn’t get along. “Is this weird?”
“What?”
“This truce of ours?”
“It’s a little weird, but mostly it’s just nice.”
“I keep waiting for you to say something rude.”
He chuckles and shakes his head. “I promise I’m not going to say anything rude.”
We ride along for a while with nothing but the music from the stereo filling the car, and it’s a comfortable silence
“Hey, Luca? Is there something going on with you and Tyler?”
“What do you mean?”
“You seem angry
at him, and he seems like he’s trying to avoid you at all costs.”
“Listen, Everly…”
“If it’s because he didn’t take you home that day—don’t blame him, Luca, please. It was my fault; I didn’t want him to go, and he stayed behind because of me.”
“Nothing that happened that day was your fault. Don’t put that on yourself.”
“Yeah, but if I would have just let him go…”
“This didn’t happen because Tyler didn’t take me home. I made the choice to go to the park, and it has nothing to do with you.”
Something about this conversation seems wrong, like things happened that shouldn’t have happened. It’s like I’m missing a key part of the story, and I can’t figure out what it is. It’s like a secret locked away in a book somewhere left for me to find. I hang out in the waiting room while Luca does his physical therapy, my brain still going in circles trying to figure out exactly what it is that’s going on. The answer is right there, I can feel it just below the surface waiting for me to discover it. I let it go before it begins to drive me crazy and I let my mind drift off to all of the other things I have to do, like get ready for law school even though I’m not so sure I really want to go. I think the fact that Tyler wanted to be a lawyer motivated me to do the same, but I don’t think I have the drive for it that he has. I know I’d be good at it, though, and for now, that’s enough for me.
It’s been two weeks since Luca was released from the hospital and came to stay with us. Two weeks of Tyler avoiding Luca and barely speaking to me. He gets up, goes to work, comes home, and goes to sleep—that’s the extent of his routine. I don’t know what’s gotten into him, and the more I ask, the further away he pushes me. What’s worse is that all of the time I should be spending with my new husband, I’ve been spending with his best friend, instead.
I like it—it scares the hell out of me, it keeps me up at night, and I know that it’s wrong. Every fiber of my being knows that it’s wrong, but I still can’t stop how I feel. I like every single minute that I’ve spent with Luca; I’ve come to cherish the time that we spend together because when I’m with him, it’s only me—he only sees me. There are no emergency phone calls, no random text messages. There are no sporting events that take precedent, no one from work pulling him away. It’s just me, and I love it.
“You want another slice of pizza?” I ask Luca.
“Don’t try to distract me,” he says, lining up the remote before taking a step toward the TV and swinging his arm forward. “Haha! Strike,” he yells spinning around on his good leg and grinning at me. Who knew virtual bowling could be so much fun? Looking at him now, you could barely tell that he was shot just a few weeks ago.
“All right, show off, my turn,” I chastise, picking up my remote and taking my place in front of the TV. I suck at bowling—I suck at it in real life, and I suck at it equally as bad in video games, so I’m not looking forward to yet another virtual gutter ball.
“Line up the shot, Ev, and when you release the ball twist the remote just a little bit.”
“What’s that going to do?”
“Just trust me,” he says with a chuckle.
I look at him skeptically but follow his instructions anyway and knock down six pins. “Yay.” I jump up excitedly.
“Nice job. Go again,” he encourages.
I line up my shot; he comes up behind me, his hands on my waist, and pushes me slightly to the side. “This is where you should be.”
His warm breath on the nape of my neck makes me shudder slightly. I hate how my heart rate speeds up because of his proximity, and yet, I love having him this close. I take the shot quickly and miss the remaining pins, but I don’t care. I need to get some distance. I plop on the couch and pick up my cell phone to find an unread text message.
“I just got a text from Tyler,” I say looking up at Luca.
His voice turns almost icy. “What’s it say?”
“It says he’s working late with his dad and he’ll be home late again.” He’s been home late just about every single night over the last two weeks, and I honestly believe he’s doing it so that he can avoid Luca.
“Hmm.”
“What?” I glance up at him arching my brow in question. “What’s the hmm for?”
“Nothing,” he says turning his attention back to the video game. I’m up and out of my seat to snatch the remote before he can pull away.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you and Ty? What’s the issue?”
He shrugs his shoulders at me. “There’s no issue.”
“Luca.”
“I just think that he needs to get his priorities in order.”
“Right because that’s not cryptic at all.”
“It’s all I’m going to say for now.”
“Why, why won’t you tell me what’s going on.”
“What kind of man would leave his brand new wife to give a friend a ride home?”
I take a step back and look at him in confusion.
“What kind of friend would ask a guy that just got married to take him home?”
“Good question.”
“Are you saying you didn’t ask him? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I’m not saying anything. You need to ask him, and you need to open your eyes,” he says turning to walk away. But I’m not done with him, not done with this conversation. I follow him to the staircase and grab his arm just before he reaches the first step.
“Wait.”
He turns back to me, and when he does, he snakes his arm around my waist, pulls me into him and lowers his lips to mine. His bold move takes me aback. I brace my hands on his shoulders out of pure shock, I think. I know I should use my position to push him away and tell him no, but instead, I do the unthinkable—I do the unspeakable—and I kiss him back. I part my lips in invitation, one that he accepts immediately as he slides his tongue into my mouth. I push all logical thoughts out of my head and allow myself to feel, to take everything that he’s giving me and enjoy every single second of it. In the end, Luca pulls away before I do. He looks down at me, his eyes full of lust, but his body language is taut, frigid, and full of remorse.
“I’m sorry Ev. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I know. I’m sorry, too. I should have…”
“No, you didn’t do anything wrong. It was me.”
“It wasn’t just you. It’s been happening for a while now, hasn’t it? I’m not the only one that feels it, am I?”
“No, you’re not the only one, but it doesn’t matter. You’re married, and that’s the bottom line.”
“I know. You’re right.”
“I’m leaving in the morning.”
“You don’t have to do that. It was one mistake.”
“It was one hell of a mistake, and if it happens again, I can promise you that I won’t be the one pulling away.”
“But—”
“I’m all right. I’m recovered enough to be on my own again, and it’s time to get back to real life. I’m moving to Chicago at the end of the summer anyway. You know that I’m going to law school there. You won’t have to see me.”
“You’re my friend, Luca, it’s not like that. We’ve moved passed hating each other.”
“Yeah, maybe we did a little too good of a job with moving forward,” he says before walking up the stairs.
He’s right; it was a mistake, a huge fuck up on both of our parts. I never thought I’d be the kind of girl who would do something like this, the kind of girl who would cheat on her husband. But for the last few weeks, my husband has been gone in every way that matters, and in that time, Luca has crept into a place in my heart. Holy shit, I can’t believe I just had that thought. I can’t believe that this is happening, and if it was so wrong then why the fuck does the knowledge that Luca is leaving tomorrow leave me feeling so sad?
The front door slams, alerting me that Tyler is home. I close my eyes preparing to tell him what happened between Luca and m
e earlier, until I hear loud voices from downstairs. I throw the covers off me and tread lightly into the hallway. I reach the stairs but stop myself from going downstairs when I hear Luca’s voice.
“You’re never going to learn, are you? Look at what happened to me, dude.”
“Just stay out of it,” is Tyler’s response.
“Stay out of it? Stay the fuck out of it? Are you fucking kidding me right now? You put me right the fuck in it, Ty.”
“I’m taking care of it.”
“Yeah and what about Everly, huh?” I slide down against the wall and come to a sitting position; I’m not sure how I feel about Luca bringing me up right now.
“What about her?” Ty questions, sounding like he’s being put out, like he has better things to do than to have this discussion with Luca.
“You abandoned her. You left her in this house for the last few weeks, and you’re nowhere to be found.”
“She hasn’t been alone. She’s had you around.”
“You’re right, she has had me, but what about the fact that I kissed your wife tonight, does that matter?” The silence is scary; I can only imagine what Tyler is thinking right now. The sound of something shattering startles me, but I stay put. I need to figure out what’s happening with my husband.
