Page 43 of British Daddy to Go

Maggie

This is our third date, but I’m afraid I might lose Sean for good if I admit what I have to tell him.

I’ve debated whether or not he needs to know. After three hours on the phone with Jenna, I knew I couldn’t keep it a secret. It wouldn’t be fair to Sean or to me.

“What’s going on, Maggie?” Sean asks. His voice is hoarse and laced with fear. Have I put him in this position? It’s my fault that he’s upset.

People are flowing from the cinema entrance. They watch us with interest as we stand there, Sean towering over me and clearly upset.

“Are you okay, miss?” one bystander asks. He glances between Sean and me.

“I’m okay, thank you,” I assure him. “It was nice of you to stop.”

Sean swallows and takes a step back, probably realizing he’s getting a little too close. He doesn’t even know what he’s angry about!

I tug on his arm when I notice Stefan approaching in Sean’s limo. “Maybe we should continue this conversation in private.”

“I’d really prefer to know what’s going on, Maggie. Are you breaking up with me?”

“No!” I shout. “Not even close. There’s just something you need to know, and it might make you angry.”

“Your evasion is making me angry,” he says, but he climbs into the waiting limo instead of trying to carry on the conversation on a New York City street. “Take us to the penthouse, Stefan.”

I bite my lip. “I really should be getting home.”

“No, you should be explaining. We can speak freely in my apartment.”

By “speak freely,” I assume he means yell. I’ve turned this whole thing into a much bigger deal than it needs to be. I feel like I need to diffuse the situation, but I don’t know how.

“Yes, sir,” Stefan says from the front. He closes the partition to give us privacy. The last few times I’ve been in Sean’s car, this has meant the two of us were going to be getting hot and heavy right here in the back seat. When we arrived at the theater earlier, we’d both had to adjust our clothes and pretend like we hadn’t been rounding third base during the ten-minute ride from my apartment.

Sean doesn’t make any move to kiss me this time, though. My head falls heavily against the tinted glass. Jenna would know what to do, but I can’t call her right now, obviously. I might be able to get away with texting her. Sean isn’t paying me any mind, so I pull my phone out quickly.

I started to tell Sean about the other night, and it turned into a big deal. Help!I send in a text to Jenna.

Her response is almost immediate.What do you mean?

I told him there was something I had to tell him, but then a lot of people showed up, so I haven’t told him yet, and he’s angry at me. What if he wants to break it off?

Sean had seemed genuinely worried when he thought I might be breaking up with him. Does that automatically mean he won’t kick me to the curb when he finds out what I have to tell him? I can’t be so sure.

Where are you now?

In the limo on the way to his apartment, I tell her. Then I add,I’ve never been in a guy’s apartment before.

I imagine Jenna’s tinkling laugh at my innocence. It takes a couple of minutes for her to text back this time, making me more nervous. Finally, her response comes through.That’s a good sign. You can talk privately and then have some much needed alone time where your parents can’t find you.

That possible scenario hadn’t crossed my mind. I’ve been so focused on this stupid, anti-climactic secret that I haven’t thought about what might happen when I share it with Sean. Surely, he won’t be very angry with me once he finds out. Then we’ll be able to…

I can’t think about that right now or I might jump into Sean’s lap in the back of this limo. It will be my first time if we do go all the way tonight. How much time do I have before I need to be home? My phone clock says it’s just after 9. My parents expect me home by 10:30 tonight. That doesn’t give us much time, but from what I’ve heard, an hour should be plenty.

Nervousness bubbles in my stomach, but it’s an excited nervousness. I want to end up in Sean’s bed tonight. It would be the perfect ending to a night that started off amazing and has gone south since then.

Sean is staring stubbornly out the driver’s side window. Whereas before, we couldn’t get close enough to each other in the wide backseat, now it seems we can’t get far enough apart. I turn back to my own window before he notices me watching him. If he wants to be angry with me right now, then so be it. It’s not like he’s wrong. I shouldn’t have made such a big deal out of needing to talk to him.

After a twenty-minute drive through traffic, Stefan finally pulls up to the curb outside of an uptown skyscraper.

“You live here?” I ask when I join Sean on the sidewalk.