Secrets and Lies (a Les Twins fanfic)

Chapter 18: Confessions

The knock at the door was unexpected. Gabby was almost finished packing.

She zipped up her last suitcase on the bed and set it on the floor before going to see who it was.

“Can I come in?”

Laurent was wearing a fitted black shirt, jeans, and a gray leopard print scarf over his neck warmer. His height seemed to fill up the whole doorway.

Gabby was barefoot in a satin robe. She leaned on the door and looked up at him with a mix of different emotions. She hesitated.

He touched her cheek. “I didn’t mean what I say—you’re not just business to me. I don’t want you to leave.”

She opened the door wider and let him pass. He sat on the edge of the bed playing with the beads on his bracelets. She stood fidgeting with the belt on her robe. It was awkward.

“Lau, you have every right to be angry with me. I haven’t been honest with you about things.”

“Like what?”

Gabby stared at the lamp, then at the walls, anywhere but at him, willing herself to speak.

“Why you can’t look at me?”

She dragged her eyes back to him, his perfect face, his untamed hair, his beautiful dark eyes focused on hers. She wished the floor would open up and swallow her right then.

Laurent shook his head and made an impatient motion with his hand. His beads clicked. “So what’s his name?”

“You already know?” Gabby’s mind immediately jumped to Larry’s threat, but Laurent had guessed it on his own.

“I think so from the beginning. But the way you run out last night made me know for sure.” He paused. “Do you love him?”

“I’m marrying him.” The weight of the words made her shoulders sag.

“That’s not what I ask.”

“That’s not the point.” Gabby ran a hand through her hair. “The point is that I’m so sorry, Lau. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I knew it was wrong, but I had these feelings for you and I tried to ignore them but I couldn’t and then I thought maybe we could just have this one moment or something. I don’t know.”

She was rambling.

“So you only want to have moment with me. Like toy?”

“No! No, that’s not what I meant at all. It’s not like that.”She covered her forehead with her palm. “Please forget everything I just said. Let me…let me start over.”

“Gabby?”

“What?”

“Stop talking.”

He pulled her down onto his lap. She laid her head on his shoulder.

“I can’t apologize to you enough. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“I can tell. Because you suck at it.”

He was trying to make her laugh, but it didn’t work.

Her eyes watered up as she breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for not hating me.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Laurent fell silent. His body was tense and his jaw was tight making his cheekbones even more prominent. Gabby felt her stomach drop.

“Lau, say something, anything, please. Whatever you’re thinking tell me. I can take it.” She braced for the worst.

He moved his arm causing her to fall on her back onto the bed then leaned over her running one hand up the outside of her thigh and looking directly into her eyes.

“You know what I think? I think you worry too much about what other people think. I think you should do want you want.”

His necklace dangled down brushing her chest as he spoke making her acutely aware that there was only a thin layer of satin between her body and his. He rubbed her hair back from her face and kissed her on the forehead.

“When you figure out what that is…you let me know.”

Before Gabby could respond he was gone. The door clicked open and shut. She sat up and drew her knees to her chest still tingling from his touch.

A cold shower was in order.