When Faults Collide (Faultlines #1) (14 page)

He walked over and kissed me passionately, the fire igniting between us. There was no denying the chemistry.

When he pulled back we were both breathless.

He held my hand and pulled me back towards his bed. He kissed me softly and then brushed my hair behind my ear.

“Let’s go to bed, beautiful.”

I nodded and crawled into bed with him following me.

He curled up behind me and pulled me into an embrace, my back against his chest.

I sighed contentedly and he kissed the back of my head.

We held on to each other, forgetting everything else. In his embrace I wasn’t the child of a prostitute. I wasn’t a rape survivor. I was Asha. He was Blake. Together we were perfectly imperfect. Two broken pieces that were made whole together.

I drifted off into a deep sleep, feeling so thankful for the man who held me in his arms.

Chapter Fifteen

I came into the house after my morning run to find Blake in the kitchen making breakfast. I leaned up to kiss him as he handed me a cup of coffee, then I decided to inspect his handiwork.

“I just chopped up some of the leftover beef from last night and mixed it with some eggs. Hope that’s okay,” he said, leaning down to give me another kiss.

I nodded and sniffed. “Mmm...smells good.”

I whipped out my phone to send out a Tweet.

He peeked at me while he scooped out the eggs onto two plates. I grabbed two forks and we sat down in the dining room to eat.

“You have an obscene number of followers,” he stated.

I nodded. “Yeah, most of them are blog followers, but I also use Twitter to network with other bloggers and designers.”

“How long have you been blogging?” he asked.

“Um, since freshman year of college. It was like therapy for me. Then it kind of exploded,” I said, putting a bite into my mouth. “This is delicious by the way.”

He smiled. “Thanks. So, have you ever thought about writing a book? You don’t make money with your blog right?”

I shook my head. “No...I do. I don’t really
have
to design. I could live off of my blog alone. But this was my dream.”

“Really? Do you have like, a ton of ads and sponsored posts?” he asked, clearly interested.

“No. I mean, I’ve done sponsored posts, yes. In the beginning when I decided to monetize I had the standard ads, but now I only have purchased ads, and I only have a handful of those. The revenue from those ads are significant enough. No need to be greedy and litter my blog with ads. My readers don’t want that,” I explained while taking another big bite.

He sipped his coffee and looked at me thoughtfully. “That’s awesome. One of these days I hope you will let me read it.”

I coughed, nearly choking. “You haven’t seen it?”

He shook his head, “No. I thought it was probably personal, so I figured I would wait on you to invite me to see it.”

“That—that’s really thoughtful of you, Blake,” I said, fighting back the urge to cry. I shook off the feeling and took another sip of my coffee.

He shrugged and then grinned at me, flashing his dimple. “Besides, I would much rather hear things from the person writing than from the words she writes.”

We finished up breakfast and I took our dishes to the sink to wash. Blake came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He kissed my cheek.

“I gotta head out. Text me when you’re on the way and I’ll meet you at the door tonight, okay?”

I nodded and then turned my head to give him a kiss.

The sparks from our contact would never cease to amaze and astound me.

He leaned back, his beautiful emerald eyes shining through his glasses. He gave me another quick kiss on the tip of my nose and then left.

I finished up the dishes and headed upstairs to get a shower and get ready for my day, especially my lunch with Lily.

After my shower, I brushed my hair into a bun. I walked across my office into my bedroom and opened my wardrobe, shuffling through outfits. I picked out a red tea dress, a black shrug cardigan, and black leggings. Deciding to do something fun, I picked out some red lipstick and applied it before heading downstairs and plucking my red ballet flats from the basket by the front door.

I had a while before I had to meet Lily, but wanted to run some errands in Carytown before our lunch.

I locked my front door, the breeze swaying my dress just slightly. I went down the stairs and heard my phone ringing as I opened the door to my car.

“Hey, Marcy!” I said happily.

“There’s my girl. So, I hear that you are bringing a boy over on Sunday?” she asked cheekily.

I giggled. “Yeah. Although I would say he’s a young man or man, Marcy.”

“When you get to be my age, they are all boys. Well, listen, your dad has some fancy business partner in town from London. They’ve been working all week to close the sale of a business and your dad invited him to join us on Sunday.”

“Oh...okay,” I said, a little disappointed.

“So, I was thinking you and your new friend can come over a little early, so that way we all have time to talk and catch up before your dad’s partner arrives.” She sounded hopeful.

“Sure! We can do that,” I agreed.

“Great! Ok, well I will see you on Sunday then!”

We disconnected and I started my car, letting Kina Grannis flow through my speakers as I made my way towards Carytown.

Cary Street, or “Carytown” to the locals, is a street south of the area of town known as “The Fan,” which is just west of downtown. It’s full of quirky dives, hipster-style shops, restaurants, coffee shops, and other small, eccentric businesses.

Chop Suey was one of those quirky places. Walking by you may not be sure whether it’s a Chinese restaurant or a store of some kind, but it’s actually a really funky used book store where I spent entirely too much time and money.

Ha! As if you could spend too much money on books.

I strolled in and went straight to the biographies section. I browsed for about fifteen minutes before picking out a few that interested me and checked out.

I snapped a picture of the books on the register before the clerk put them in a bag for me and uploaded it to Instagram.

I went through a few more shops, just browsing, not really buying, before it was time to head back downtown to meet Lily.

I parked on Grace Street and made my way across the street to find Lily standing out front waiting on me. She hopped and grinned when she saw me and I quickly met her embrace.

“Oh my God, Lils, let me see it!” I exclaimed, breaking our embrace and pulling her left hand towards me.

Sitting on her left ring finger was a beautiful rose gold band with an oval shaped diamond solitaire right in the center.

I felt a tear escape my eye and quickly brushed it away.

“I’m so happy for you guys,” I told her, pulling her into another embrace.

“You stop it, you’re going to make me cry. Cut it out,” she teased, though by the cracking in her voice she had already started.

We both shook it off and made our way inside to be seated. We sat in a corner table and ordered our drinks. She ordered wine and I ordered a local hard cider.

We chatted about her rehearsal, Tom’s new gig painting a mural for a private school, and in her parent’s reaction to their engagement.

Then she wanted to know all about Blake so I told her everything that had been going on with us.

“You’ve stayed over with each other for two nights straight? My God, Asha, you have evolved! So...how is he?” she asked with a suggestive eye raise.

I knew what she was referring to. Sneaky cow.

“No, not like that. Just you know...cuddling...sleeping. Not sleeping together
like that.”

Her eyebrow raised even higher and then she pursed her lips and shook her head.

“What?” I asked.

“Asha, at some point, you’re going to have to deal with your intimacy issues,” she said knowingly.

“I don’t have intimacy issues, Lils. And besides, it’s only been like a week. There’s no rush. Everything is fine. We are just enjoying each other,” I said, trying to reassure her.

“Yes, I’m not saying hop into bed with him. Come on. You do, however, have intimacy issues, and you are going to have to deal with them.” She waved her fork around at me before she dug into her salad.

I peered down at my salad and took a bite.

“You know I’m not wrong. You forget that I have a dual degree.”

“I know. You love to remind me,” I said, still looking at my salad.

Lily was a theater major, but she also held an undergrad in psychology with a minor in human sexuality. She called it her fall back if she didn’t make it.

She reached out and put her hand over mine. I glanced up and saw her brown eyes looking sadly at me.

“You have come leaps and bounds, Ash. I only bring it up because I love you.”

I smiled weakly and nodded.

Though I never shared my whole truth with Lily, the day that she met me there was no hiding how completely messed up I was.

It was a month into freshman year. I had gone to the school’s gym to work out and a boy there tried to talk to me and get my number. I avoided him and he followed me outside. He put his hand on my arm to try and talk to me and I freaked out.

Lily and Tom had been walking by and saw the boy run off and sat with me until I stopped shaking and crying. We had been friends ever since.

She saw my distress and changed the subject, commenting that she loved the red lipstick.

Those moments, when Lily decided not to push—those moments made me love her even more. She got me; that’s why she was my best friend.

We spent another hour chatting and catching up before she dropped some big news on me.

“So, since we’re like...getting married, and all that....Tom has... well...” she started, then started twirling her hair, clearly nervous.

“Tom what, Lily?” I asked.

“Well...Tom has asked me to move in.” She immediately began nibbling on her bottom lip and looking at me nervously.

“With all of his roommates?” I asked, amused.

Tom had five roommates and lived in a very small warehouse conversion apartment in Manchester.

“Well...yes and no. I’ll stay with him for now, but we are going to buy a place together.
Obviously
I insisted it must be in Church Hill,” she stated, adding that last part as a fact.

“Okay,” I said simply.

Her eyes widened. “You aren’t upset?”

I shrugged one shoulder. “Well, I’ll miss you, Lils, but it’s not like I expected you and Tom to live with me as newlyweds. That would be disturbing on about a million levels.”

She giggled and then squeezed my hand. “I’m so glad you aren’t upset.”

We finished up our lunch and then made plans for her to come by and pack up her stuff.

I got in my car and sighed. This was the end of an era with my best friend, but it also felt like a new beginning for me. I was going to be okay without Lily.

Chapter Sixteen