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George’s concern and sympathy just made the tears come faster. But Emma couldn’t stop herself. She buried her face in her hands and cried stormily for a few minutes.
Then the worst seemed to pass, and she was able to breathe. Dashing her tears away using one of the coat cuffs, she hiccupped.
George pressed a crumpled towel into her hand. It had a little grease on it, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
“Do you want to take it back?” she asked carefully. “About last night? If what you did with Garrett wasn’t consensual, Iwill support you in whatever way you wish. Just because he married you doesn’t mean he automatically gets sex. You know that, right?”
Emma hadn’t known Georgia long, but she was already her best, most amazing friend. “I think I seduced him actually.”
He’d been so sad that he hadn’t gotten the chance to dance with her at the wedding. Maybe she hadn’t consciously planned it, but at no point during the evening had she felt like stopping.
Garrett was right. A sexual relationship had been inevitable.
Emma shook her head, looking down at her hand. “This is because of my stupid broken brain. You see, I thought I was a virgin. According to everything I’d been able to piece together of my life before my accident, I was. This morning, I thought I had physical confirmation… a little blood on the sheets.”
“Oh.” Georgia’s expression lightened in understanding. “Ooooh.”
“Yeah.” Emma sighed. “It wasn’t a lot, but I thought it confirmed what I knew. Till Garrett informed me otherwise.”
Georgia drew a line in the air. “And he knew this because the two of you…” She trailed off, scribbling in the air as if connecting the dots.
“He saidhewas my first,” Emma whispered, a faint ringing beginning in her ears. “I lost my virginity to him. Before the accident.”
Georgia didn’t make a sound. When Emma turned to check her reaction, the young mechanic was staring, open-mouthed.
“I thought you were enemies.”
She threw up her hands. “That’s what I said! But it seems we weren’t at each other’s throats the whole time.”
Georgia bit her lip, processing the new information faster than she had. “Was there a truce and it didn’t last?”
That was a good question. “I have no idea. I don’t know the circumstances.”
Georgia sat on the couch arm, facing her with her hands propped on her thighs. “He didn’t explain? Were you a couple?”
Emma was starting to feel bad for another reason. “I didn’t let him tell me. Once he started talking about the night of my accident, I freaked out.”
Or rather freaked out further, because she had already been right on the edge of losing it.
How pathetic did she look right now? “I couldn’t process anything after that.”
“Whoa,wait, hold the phone.” George hopped down onto the couch cushions. “I thought he didn’t know what happened!”
She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what he knows. Like I said, I didn’t let him explain.”
Emma chewed on her lip, trying to break through that wall to her past. One memory—a flash that could explain what Garrett was. What he had done…
Georgia grabbed her hands and squeezed them, anxiety in every line of her face. “Did he run you down?”
Emma fell back on the couch cushions. The ceiling was turning above her ever so slightly. “I don’t…”
I wasn’t there. I wish to God I had been, but I wasn’t.
The knot in her chest eased, letting her breathe. “No.”
George squinted at her. “Are you sure?”
She pushed herself upright, but her body was weak. This time with relief. “What he said is that hewishedhe was there.”