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“So, how did he find out?”
“He saw her on my phone. He knew right away she was his,” I say, remembering the morning and how upset he was. It was one of the worst days of my life.
“Yikes. I take it that didn’t go well.”
“No, not really. Especially since we had just slept together. Again.”
“Erica!” Troy says loudly, making Josie jump slightly in my lap.
“I know,” I groan.
“And I thought my life had been a mess…”
“It was. Your ex-wife tried to kill your new girlfriend,” I say, reminding him of his own hell not too long ago.
“Don’t remind me. I almost lost everything,” he groans with a shake of his head.
“I’m sorry.”
“So what are you two now?” he asks, changing the subject.
“Nothing. We’re just co-parenting.”
He shoots me a look.
“What? We are,” I say more insistently.
“Oh, come on, Erica. I could cut the attraction between you two like a knife earlier.”
I look at him and my mouth falls open in surprise. Are we that obvious? My brother just barely met the guy and somehow can see that there’s something going on between us. Something that I may have just ruined.
“Is it really that obvious?” I ask.
“That you love each other? Yeah.”
“Love each other?” I laugh.
Troy narrows his gaze knowingly and gives me a smile that says he’s right. I bite my lip and think about what he’s saying.Love. That’s a big word. Is it possible I love Marco? Is that why I’m so scared? Could he really love me back?
I think back to his hand on my face in the café just before this, how tenderly he looked at me as I welcomed his touch. How he wiped my tears away, like they physically pained him to see coming from my eyes.
I go back further to our nights here in this apartment. In this nursery. The way he danced with Josie around the room, makingup silly songs and glancing my way every so often. The way my laugh filled the room in a way only he could pull from me.
I go back even further to the night the two of us danced, tipsy from champagne and the thrill of finally giving in to our desires without caring who saw. We were the only two in that room, just like we were in the jazz club all that time ago. It’s like I can still feel his hands around me as we swayed, leading us to falling into his bed, desperate to uncover each other.
It hits me now that I love him.
I love Marco.
It took revealing everything to my brother, of all people, to see that the secret I’ve been keeping from myself all this time is that I’m in love with Marco. I think I have been from the moment I spilled my drink on him on that rooftop. Which makes the fact that he just now left with that sad expression on his face even harder. I just hurt the man that I loved, and have been unintentionally hurting him for too long now.
My thoughts must be plastered across my face because Troy gives me a smile.
“I can stay with Josie,” he says.
“Wh-what? Stay with her?” I ask, confused.
“So you can go.”