Page 115 of Only After We Met
“What are you doing offering her that stuff?” he shouted.
“Relax, bud. I was just trying to be a good host.”
“Shit.” Rhys ran a hand through his hair, then reached out for me. Something about him, a fragile look, made me take his hand. “We’re going, Ginger,” he said.
“Already?” Emily asked.
“Yeah, man, stay awhile. Give this a try. This is your shit,” Alec said, passing him the tube. Rhys shook his head, said goodbye, and dragged me out behind him. I blinked, confused, looking at his back, the tension in his shoulders, the sweat on the blond tips of his hair. The music enveloped us…
And I tried to fit my image of him into what I had just seen. Tried to make all the Rhyses come together as one, but I couldn’t. And he felt further away from me than ever.
60
Rhys
We were on the patio, each of us with a Coke in our hand. I could smell the sea breeze, which was blowing on us lightly. There were no sounds but crickets from far away. Ginger had barely said a word since we left the club. I sighed. I stretched my legs out and rested them on the edge of her chair, grazing her. For almost the first time since we’d met, I didn’t know what her expression meant, what was going through her head.
“Ginger…” I whispered.
“You never told me.”
“Yeah. Because it doesn’t matter.”
“It does. You do drugs.”
“Everyone does. It’s…”
“It’s what?” she asked.
“It’s normal, Ginger. It is.”
“Rhys, please…”
She got up, but I caught her before she could leave and pulled her into my lap. I pushed her hair out of her face, nervous, hating to see her scowl, hating the disappointment on her face.
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t do it, but in this environment…this world…” I shook my head. “I won’t make excuses. I didn’t want you to ever find out, because I didn’t want…this. I didn’t want you to look at me the way you are now.”
Ginger wrapped her arms around my neck. “For a moment, Rhys, I felt like I didn’t know you.”
“Shit. Don’t say that. Because if you don’t know me, then who does?”
She didn’t answer. She didn’t say anything. And that silence, that sudden emptiness, scared me.
61
Ginger
The next few days were relaxed, pleasant. On Friday afternoon, we went to Ibiza Town, and I bought a couple of new bikinis, some clothes for the beach, and then, in a fancy shop, I looked for something to wear out at night. I tried on three outfits in all. Rhys waited patiently outside the door of the fitting room. The first outfit I decided against before even showing it to him. The second made my boobs look weird. And the third…even I had to stand there looking at myself in the mirror. It was a simple strapless dress, snug, short, cherry red.
I walked out. He looked up from his phone, looked down, then looked back up as though he hadn’t seen me the first time. His gray eyes slid slowly down my body, and I suppressed the impulse to run back into the fitting room.
“It’s too short,” I said, “plus…”
“Are you kidding? You’re taking it.”
I smiled, still a little timid. “It’ll do for Sunday.”
“You can wear it around the house too.”