CHIKLIT/ROMANCE
"BULL! You still love that useless prick!"
"Harley!" I cry, "It's not him that I want! I lo-"
He punches the wall, forcing my favorite memory to shatter across the floor, "I'm going to kill him!"
Haunted by her memories, Liana...
In this chapter, the truth begins to unravel! I hope you like what you discover.
I had told you to time me. I didn't need a whole minute to convince you, just fifty-one seconds to be exact. No more. No less."
He smiled and exited the room with his little girl in tow.
That day, I never knew it at the time, but my life was about to change forever.
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I stood in the center of the room covered in the smell of sour orange juice and my mouth hanging open in shock. I was failing miserably at attempting to process what he had just said along with his forward offer. No games. No wondering what his intentions were. He was ready to have...all of me.
*******
Time is a funny thing. He was able to convince me in fifty-one seconds how he felt, but what about if the time took longer for me to accept his offer? They say if a person really loves you they will wait patiently and never give up because they know you are worth it in the end.
They also say, if the person doesn't have true feelings for you, they will eventually give up and find a new interest to fulfill their needs. I used to believe both of those theories. James waited for me as I wept, screamed, laughed, and withdrew from him quite a few times. He still relentlessly pursued my love. Eventually, my emotional turmoil healed from the loss of Harley. I even let my "protective" wall down. As time passed, I fell madly in love with James. I truly believed the old saying was true. He had waited for me in every sense of the word, or so I thought.
After being with him for over a year I learned his quirks and habits. One of his habits - he used a southern drawl when he was lying and trying to get out of trouble. In the beginning, I loved him enough that I found his accent very attractive. After a while not so much.
Through his quirks and habits - good and bad, he continued to show me how to love and be loved. He fulfilled my every need. He was going to be my forever, or so I thought.
Bit by bit certain facts were not adding up. I began to question little details in his life, and when I asked him about them he would never give me a straight answer. When I attempted to find out more on my own he dodged them with flirtatious jokes, sexual pleasures, or even over-priced gifts.
Another red flag that really bothered me, Mr. Rolland never wanted us to be together. He always seemed to have a task for me to do when James would come to the gas station. Mr. Rolland would send him off to run errands or make me go clean the storage room. If I tried to have dinner with James and his daughter Mr. Rolland made sure to cancel it. There always seemed to be a catastrophe on our dinner nights.
James didn't let his grandpa stop him either. He would always sneak to my house, or we would go to the burger joint and have a meal and eat the infamous pie.