She shakes her head at me. “How do you think I see you?” When I don’t respond, she says, “You don’t have to hide from me. I love you.”
I go ahead and take this moment to open up to her a bit more about this and confess, “He held my hand when we were walking through the quad the other day, and I froze up. I’ve never done that before with a guy, but now that I think about it, I’ve never really held hands with a guy.”
“I don’t understand.”
“What I have with him is so different than what I’m used to. It’s one thing for me to screw around with guys, but to be with Mark the way I want to be, like holding his hand, in front of others . . . it just makes me uncomfortable to know what people might be thinking.”
She stands up and walks towards me. “It doesn’t matter what people think. You should be able to hold your boyfriend’s hand without having to worry about what other people are thinking. Mark is great. Don’t let that stuff get in the way of you guys.”
Taking her hands, I draw her into me and hug her. “I know. I’m trying to get past it.”
“It’s another reason why I should go back home. I feel like I’m intruding on your time together.”
Looking down at her, I insist, “You will never be an intrusion. I want you here,” before kissing her forehead.
Chapter thirteen
“Why are you wanting to eat so late?”
“Because today was the first day that Candace went back to work. I just wanted to have something to distract her when she gets home in case it didn’t go so well,” I tell Mark as he walks through the apartment. Candace has been at work all evening, and I have a feeling that what she was hoping for by getting out and going back to work is not what happened. I know she expects everything to go back to the way it was by going back to her normal routines. I tried talking to her about it last night, but she’s determined and completely shut me out.
“When is she supposed to be getting off?” Mark asks, coming into the kitchen and leaning up against the counter as I finish chopping the tomatoes for the bruschetta.
“A little after eleven.”
“Can I help?”
Looking at him, I smile and say, “Yeah, could you turn the heat down on the sauce and stir it?”
I watch him as he walks over to the stove and fiddles with the knob. I laugh to myself because I can see that he isn’t comfortable in the kitchen.
Adding the oil to the tomatoes and onions, I look over at Mark and ask, “Will you go turn up the music?”
“Yeah, sure,” he says, and then comes back to the stove to stir the sauce again. I know he hasn’t a clue what the hell he is supposed to be doing, but I find it sweet that he’s trying to be helpful. I come up behind him and start nipping along his neck. When he turns in my arms, he looks over my shoulder and says, “Hey!”
I turn to see Candace standing in the middle of the living room and the look on her face tells me everything that I feared. She looks upset and starts walking to my bedroom. Leaning my hands against the counter, Mark slides his hand over my shoulder and says, “I’ll go talk to her.”
I want to say something, but it’s taking everything in me to keep myself in check. I hate seeing that look on her face. She tries to be so strong, and I could see that she was fighting hard not to cry.
I nod my head and Mark kisses the center of my neck before heading back to my room, and I try to keep myself busy by finishing up dinner.
They are back there for quite a while, but when they return, Candace is smiling. I walk straight to her and bring her in for a hug before kissing her. “Hey, sweetie. How was work?”
“Weird at first, but it wound up being a busy night, which was good,” she says as she picks out a bottle of wine and starts to open it.
I quickly slice up the baguette and set it on the bar with the bruschetta. Candace and Mark sit and eat while talking. It’s great that they have become friends. It makes me feel more content, knowing that Candace has him to lean on as well as me.
“Hey, didn’t your band have a show last night?” Candace asks Mark.
“Yeah, we played at Blur. It was a great gig; the place was packed.”
“I’ve never been there before.”
Looking over at her, I tease, “Candace, you haven’t been anywhere.” She scrunches her face at me, which causes me to laugh. “You should really hear them play sometime. You’d like their sound.”
There’s a knock at the door, and Mark hops off the barstool to go answer it. I rush to Candace’s side when I see Kimber walk in. Crap. Both Candace and I have been avoiding her calls and texts, and she looks pissed.
“What the hell is going on?” she barks. Fuck, she’s mad. “You two have been avoiding me all week, and I have no clue what I did to piss you guys off!”
“We’re not pissed at you,” I try and convince her. I know she doesn’t believe me, so I try to cover for Candace because I know she’s freaking out by the shock on her face. “Candace just wanted a little time away, that’s all.”
“From me? I’m supposed to be your best friend!” she says, looking at Candace. “Why won’t you talk to me?” she demands.
“I’m sorry,” Candace says, and Mark walks back into the kitchen. Candace looks scared as shit, and I would say just about anything to get Kimber to leave her alone, but when Candace sits on the couch, she starts talking. “Jack and I got into an argument at the party. I was upset, he was drunk, so I called Jase to come pick me up.”