Page 54 of Falling for the Unexpected

I rested my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, and I closed my eyes. I let my mind drift; the echo of his promise was everything I could hope for. We must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, a text alert woke me up and I noticed the sun was just starting to set, which meant we had been asleep for at least an hour. Unfortunately, it also meant I was going to have to leave soon so I could pick up Stella from Trent’s house.

I felt Kyle stir next to me when the text alert went off again. He reached over to his phone on the nightstand and swiped to read the text message. An inexplicable jolt of jealousy hit me at the thought of another woman possibly texting him. Just more baggage from my marriage.

“It’s Trent. He wants to get together later tonight after you pick up Stella,” Kyle said, frowning. His openness about his message was a refreshing change from being in a relationship filled with dishonesty.

I started to sit up. “Yeah, I need to get going. I’m supposed to pick her up in an hour,” I said, ignoring the fact that he and Trent were making plans for tonight. Kyle was Trent’s main wingman, and I was guessing Trent wanted to hit up the clubs again.

“I need to come up with an excuse to not go tonight,” he said, tossing his phone aside and falling back against the pillows.

“Why?” I asked as casual as I could. I threw the covers off, looking around for my clothes.

“Well, Trent is going to want to go out to meet women.” He paused and propped himself on his right elbow, stopping me from slipping off the bed. I turned and glanced back at him. I almost smiled at how nervous he looked. “I know we haven’t really talked about us being exclusive, but I hope that’s what you want because I know I don’t want to see anyone else. However, we agreed to keep this quiet for the time being so I can’t exactly tell him the truth about why I don’t want to go out,” he explained.

Now I felt horrible. I didn’t want to be the reason he was lying to his best friend.

“I’m sorry. And I definitely don’t want to see other people,” I told him honestly.

“Hey, don’t apologize. I know you have your own worries so I get not telling anyone this minute; however, we can’t keep this a secret forever. Maybe we need to decide on a time when we should tell other people.”

His suggestion sounded reasonable.

“How about if we’re still together at Thanksgiving we can announce it then,” I suggested.

“Thanksgiving is less than a month away, I think that sounds good. But, Simone?”

“Yeah”

“There is no question in my mind that we’ll still be together,” he said with a huge smile on his face.

His confidence in us as a couple was making me think things I shouldn’t this early on in a relationship. I was starting to imagine a future with him. Not wanting to say anything stupid that would send him running, I leaned over and kissed him instead.