“You like me,” he said grinning widely.
“No…I never said that but…” she started and he laughed.
“Yes you do,” he said in a soft voice. “And that is okay because…” he held her face in his hands. “Because I like you too.”
“What?” she asked and he smiled.
“I like you,” he said. “That’s why I asked you out.”
She shook her head.
“Why?” she asked.
“Why what?” he asked and she shrugged.
“Why me?” she asked as she looked at him. “I just don’t get it.”
He pulled his hands away from her face and looked into her eyes.
“What exactly don’t you get, Kylie?” he asked and she waved a hand between them.
“This. Why a guy like you…a stud in every sense of the word would want me? The girl who never got picked at gym class? What bet did you lose? What are you trying to prove?” she shook her head and a single tear rolled down her cheek.
“Whoa, Kylie,” he started as he gently brushed the tear off with his thumb. “What is going on? You are worrying me.”
“I’m sorry…I’m so…I’m sorry,” she said in a soft voice as another tear rolled down her other cheek. “This is not the way I wanted to do this but there is no perfect way to do this really…and…” she shook her head and sighed. “This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have come here.”
She stood up and began walking towards the door and a confused Sean ran after and held her wrist just before she opened the door.
“No, no, no,” he said as he pulled her back to himself. She turned around and looked at him. “Tell me what is going on because I’m not very sure I understand anything right now.”
She had another tear rolling down her cheek.
“Please tell me what’s going on because it is too painful for me to see you like this and that’s saying a lot because when I was a teenager I got my ball sac caught in the zipper of my pants,” he said and she laughed. “There she is,” he said as he brushed off the tears from her cheeks.
“You’re an idiot,” she said and he frowned.
“I think that was something you should have said with your inside voice,” he said. “Or was it more of a thought.”
“I thought it was in my head,” she said and he gently caressed her cheek with the back of his hand.
“Talk to me, beautiful,” he said again.
Kylie took a long deep breath and sighed.
“Remember when I told you that I used to be the junior vice president for a finance company?” she asked and he nodded. “It was Lyon Fisk and Churchill.”
“Wait, you used to work in New York?” he asked, surprised. “What are the odds?”
“Well, since you were in New York then you know about the hostile takeover that took place, right?” she asked and he nodded before he laughed.
“Heck, the whole country knew about it.” He began walking towards the couch. “That. Was. Brutal.”
Kylie nodded and exhaled loudly.
“Yeah and I was the one that made it happen,” she said.
“What?” he asked raising an eyebrow over the other.
“I had just started dating this guy, Frankie. Cute as ever…perfection in every sense of the word but he was always interested in something else. He used me to get his foot into Lyon Fisk and Churchill and once he did, I was trash to him.”
“What?” he asked.
“Turns out that he was Lyon Fisk’s illegitimate son or something of the sort and he had a fiancé,” she went on explaining. “Melissa. Tall, skinny and blond. Everything I wasn’t.”
“I’m so sorry,” he said as he looked at her and she shrugged.
“Well, long story short, I have been single since then,” she said. “And it sucks that I feel like I am reliving history.”
Sean looked at her and shook his head.
“Reliving history?” he echoed. “How exactly?”
“Danielle,” she said and he shrugged.
“What about her?” he asked.
“Come on, you are telling me that you did not get the vibe she was throwing? The way she was holding you and taking every chance to touch you…she even suggested that the two of you should get together.”
“Oh please, me and Danielle?” he asked. “That ship sailed a long time ago. It sailed hit an iceberg and sunk taking everyone down with it.”
“I think you just described The Titanic except for the ‘everyone dying’ part,” she said and he walked up to where she was.
“Well, to me that was what happened,” he said. He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. “I think whatever this Frankie guy did to you was so bad that you no longer value yourself as you are supposed to.” He gently slipped a hand behind her neck and looked into her slightly puffy eyes. “Give me a chance and let me prove that to you. That is all I ask.”