Her voice startled me. “What do you do, Greta?”
I didn’t feel comfortable getting into the details of my job right now, so I kept my response generic. “I work in an administrative position in the city, just mindless stuff, really.”
She smiled, and I felt like a jerk for liking that she had some laugh lines and the beginnings of crows feet around her eyes.
I was stretching here.
“Sometimes, mindless can be good. Working with kids is fulfilling but exhausting. There’s never a dull moment.”
We both glanced out through the sliding glass door. Elec was standing in the garden alone, deep in thought with his hands in his pockets.
“I’m really worried about him,” she said as she looked out at him. “Can I ask you something?”
This conversation was making me uncomfortable. “Sure.”
“He won’t talk about his father. Did something bad happen between them?”
Her question caught me off guard. It wasn’t my place to talk to her about Randy and Elec’s relationship. I knew almost nothing myself.
“They used to argue a lot, and Randy could be very disrespectful toward Elec, but honestly, I still don’t know what caused it all.”
That was all she was going to get from me.
“I’m just worried that he’s bottling stuff up. His father just died, and he’s hardly shown any emotion. I mean, if my father died, I’d be a mess.”
I know.
She went on, “I’m afraid it’s going to all hit him at once. He’s not okay. He’s not sleeping. It’s bothering him, but he won’t talk about it or allow himself to cry.”
My heart ached hearing her say that, because I was worried about him, too.
“Have you tried talking to him?” I asked.
“Yes. He just says he doesn’t want to talk about it. He almost didn’t come here for the service. I knew he’d regret it, so I pushed and pushed and finally, he gave in.”
Wow. He really wasn’t going to come.
“I’m glad you did.”
“I really love him, Greta.”
I had no doubt that she did and while hearing her say that had made my stomach hurt, the more logical side of me was happy that Elec had found someone who cared about him like that. I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t exactly tell her I might have felt the same way.
I cared about him, too.
Maybe that made no sense after so long, but my feelings for him were just as strong today as they were seven years ago. And just like before, I’d have to harbor them.
She put her hand on my arm. “Will you do me a favor?”
“Okay…”
“Will you go out there…see if you can get him to talk about it?”
“Um…”
“Please? I don’t know who else to ask. I don’t think he’s going to be prepared for everything tonight.”
I looked back out at Elec and his strong stature as he stood in the garden. This could have been my only opportunity to talk to him alone, so I agreed.
“Okay.”
She hugged me. “Thank you. I owe you one.”
In that case, I’ll take Elec. I couldn’t help my thoughts, which were out of control.
That embrace had made me realize that it was absolutely possible to genuinely like someone that you were insanely jealous of.
I took a deep breath and made my way through the sliding glass doors. The sky was turning gray as if it were about to open up into a thunderstorm.
It was not the appropriate time to notice how incredible his ass looked through the fitted black dress pants he was wearing, but nevertheless, I did. A breeze blew around the sexy black waves of his hair.
I cleared my throat to announce myself.
He didn’t turn but knew it was me.
“What are you doing out here, Greta?”
“Chelsea asked me to come talk to you.”
He shrugged his shoulders, his laugh full of sarcasm. “Oh, really.”
“Yes.”
“Were you two comparing notes?”
“That’s not funny.”
He finally turned around to look at me, blowing out the last of the smoke from his cigarette before promptly throwing it on the ground and crushing it with his foot. “You think she would have sent you out here to talk to me if she knew the last time before today that you and I were together, we were fucking like rabbits?”
Although it shocked me, hearing him acknowledging that sent a shiver through my body. “Did you have to put it like that?”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it? She would freak the fuck out if she knew.”
“Well, I’m not going to be the one to tell her, so you don’t have to worry. I would never do that.”
My eye started to twitch.