Page 21 of Unwrapping Love

“Oh shit,” he said. “That’s your drama and why you’re not at home, huh?”

“Pretty much,” she said.

There had to be more to it with the way she didn’t even make eye contact with him. Her head was down to eat.

She picked up a little kit that she’d pulled out of her bag and had brought down from upstairs. He could see test strips and the device that controlled her pump come out.

“Can’t you do it on your phone?” he asked.

“Yes, but I don’t. I always worry if the signal is down, or there is a glitch with the app. Just my personal paranoia that I do it on the PDM.”

“PDM?” he asked.

“Personal diabetes management. I think. Maybe. I just know it was always called a PDM. Just like CGM. Continuous glucose monitoring.”

“I knew what a CGM was but not what it stood for.”

“Damon,” she said.

“Yep. That’s him. You can see that on your phone, right?”

“I watch it there but have the extra device when traveling and my phone is off or the service is out.”

“Got it.”

“So what happened to good old Damon?”

“I haven’t talked to him in a few years. Last I knew he moved back to Seattle. I’m not even sure what he does. He was a business major I think. I didn’t pay too much attentionback then unless someone was in my classes. It was more about having fun.”

“I kept to myself in college,” she said.

“Why? You seem pretty outgoing to me.”

“Because not everyone understood my life or what I was going through with the diabetes. The constant need to explain myself or endure stares was annoying. Questions about the devices, the scars on my skin from the needles in those devices.”

He reached for her hand and turned it over. There were scars on her fingertips from needle pricks too.

“Fuck those people,” he said.

Her head snapped up. She smiled. A slow one that gradually reached her eyes. “You’re absolutely right. Fuck those people.”

7

ROLE MODEL

“Are you sure you don’t mind doing this?”

They were in the basement where Rowan remembered there were Christmas decorations.

“Not at all,” he said. “This is my first Christmas not home or with my family. Maybe it will help some to have a tree up.”

Saylor thought that was a sweet comment. But she was learning there was a lot sweet and considerate about Rowan.

There were many complex layers to the man that was making her blood churn.

It was a nice distraction from the physical attraction that she was begging herself to ignore.

“Can I ask why there are decorations here? You said you always go home for Christmas.”