Robbery in Progress

Twelve

The next day, I took Christina's advice and went over to Derek's after work. I knocked on his door but no one answered. I called his phone and he didn't answer it either. I figured he was mad at me. I sat outside on the steps to his place and waited. I wasn't sure when or even if he would show up or call, but I was hoping it wouldn't be long. It was after ten o'clock before someone dropped him off.

"Jen, what are you doing here?" I had my head buried in my lap. I raised my head up and he sat beside me. "How long have you been here?"

"I don't know...a few hours. I tried calling."

"I was at work. I hate that you waited for me so long. Come inside from the cold. " He unlocked his door and we made our way to the kitchen where we sat on his bar stools. "So you never told me why you waited for me to come home..."

"I wanted to apologize."

"Apologize?" I nodded.

"I was rude to you when you said your sister wanted to meet me. I shouldn't have acted like that or yelled at you."

"Why did you?"

"It's just..." Derek could tell that I was having a hard time finding the right words to explain how I felt so he gently placed a hand on my leg. "Your sister is the only close family member I will be meeting. It's like all the pressure of meeting family and meeting the parents, all in one. It's just a lot and I didn't think I was ready."

"Didn't? You mean...you're ready now?"

"I think so." He smiled at me. "I think I'd like to meet her when she comes back down in two weeks."

"I'll let her know. She'll be so excited." I smiled back at him.

"I really am sorry for how I acted."

"Don't worry about it Jen. I know why you did it. It's hard. I have felt the same way before." I really did feel like he knew exactly how I had felt. I knew he had been through things, just like me, that have made it harder to open up to someone.

"I want you to know, I really am trying to open up to you."

"Me, too."

"You know what? Ask me something."

"What?"

"Ask me something. Anything you want to know, ask it. Then, I will ask you something. Just one question for each of us to help us open up to each other."

"Okay." I really wanted to make my question count. "Why do you think your past relationships didn't work out?"

"Wow. You're really making this whole question thing tough." He thought about it for a minute and I could tell he was struggling to answer.

"If you don't want to answer, we don't have to do this."

"No, I said we would do it and we're going to. I guess my past relationships never worked out because of one reason. I loved this one girl and thought I'd marry her, but I saw her kissing some other guy one day. I confronted her about it when she came home and apparently it had been going on for six months, her seeing that other guy. After that, I didn't date anyone for a couple years until my friends told me that I should get back out there. But even then, I never really opened up to anyone. It was always like we were just going through the motions and when I got tired of it, we broke up. Sometimes we would argue and fight, which would lead to the breakup, and other times we just decided to go our separate ways. Either way, one person can do a lot of damage." I nodded, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

"I guess some people don't realize that." I paused for a moment. "Now, you ask me a question."

"Alright." I could tell he was thinking hard about the right question to ask. "Why did your last relationship end?" I wish he hadn't asked. It was hard to talk about.

"It was my freshman year of college. Everything was going so good until I found out that he had been seeing someone else long before he and I ever got together. I've never dated anyone else since then...until now." Derek waited a minute for speaking again.

"I'm glad we did this."

"Me, too." Derek smiled at me and leaned over in his chair to be close to me. He placed a hand on my leg and kissed my cheek.

A/N: I hope you all like this chapter! I will be updating this book again soon! :) Please remember to vote and comment! I really appreciate you all reading. Check out my other books, too.