Monty After Dark

Chapter 28

When I got back, Chan was still sitting in her room, hair wet, only in her underwear.

"Are you okay?" I asked, sitting down next to her. She looked so sad, it almost hurt to look at her.

She didn't say anything, just started to cry. I panicked.

"Chan, why are you crying? What's going on? Did I do something wrong?"

"No," she whispered in a crackly voice. "I did. I shouldn't be doing this to you. It's not okay. I'm not good, Matty."

"The only thing that I know of that you're doing is loving me, and letting me love you back, and that's good, so I don't know why you would think you're doing anything wrong."

"But you deserve better than me. You should be with someone like your friend Mel, I'm just... not good."

"Stop that, I don't love Mel. I love you. And you're being silly, I'm the one who is not good enough for you." Then I felt sad. I frowned. "Maybe we're just two broken people who need each other?"

I squeezed her hand and she nuzzled my neck with her nose. "Thank you," she said. "I'm sorry, I try so hard not to do this in front of you." She wiped away her tears. "It's so embarrassing that I'm such a mess."

"You're allowed. After everything that you've been through, you're allowed."

"Same to you," she said, looking right at me. I felt weird, like she was looking right through me. "You've had a rough life. It's okay to feel shitty."

"Well, let's have a nice day today, then and forget about feeling shitty for a while," I said. I kissed her head and helped her up off the bed.

"I guess I should get dressed," she said, looking in the opened drawers of her dresser.

"Only if you don't want me to jump on you," I said, laughing.

"I always want that, but if we do that again, we'll never go out. We can do more later ..." I felt a little twitch of excitement inside me.

It was cold out, so I told Chan to bring an extra sweater. I had left my camera bag downstairs. "Do you want something to eat?" she asked.

"I'm kind of hungry," I admitted. But I knew she'd go to too much trouble and make me something giant, so I added, "maybe we could pick up something?"

"I could definitely go for a coffee, all that vodka last night was a bad call," she said with a laugh. "We can stop by a diner near my office. Bacon and eggs, on me?"

"Sure," I said. "And I'd like to see your office, where the magic happens." I laughed. Chan whacked me and pulled the front door behind us. I used to look around to see if any of the neighbours were looking, but lately I realised, I don't actually give a shit what the neighbours think. We're not particularly close to any of the neighbours, and even if they do tell my dad, what's he going to do, kick me out? I almost laughed out loud at the thought of it.

Chan fired up the engine and before she threw it in reverse, I leaned over and kissed her.

"What was that for?" she asked, blushing and looking down.

"Because, I like you, obviously," I said.

"You're kind of okay, too," she replied.

We headed out into the grey morning. I was actually looking forward to seeing the office; I hadn't really given any thought to what I was going to do after university, but I wasn't going to rule anything out, and maybe if this photo thing works out, I could be a photographer like Chan.