Dating Part II
“You don’t lie and scheme against the person you love more than anyone, Gulliver,” she whimpered against his chest. “Why didn’t you just tell me the truth? Why?”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Are you?”
“Yes. If I could go back in time I would do it all different, January. I swear I would. Please, please,” he whispered against her head.
“Let me go.”
“Promise to stop punching?” he said softly.
“No.”
He chuckled as he loosened his hold but didn’t completely release her. He stared down at her, resting his forehead against hers, “you already nearly broke my nose, blackened both my eyes and my balls are aching with every single step. One of your punches just now hit me right on the nipple piercing and it might be bleeding.”
“I/hate that you’re still upright.” She closed her eyes, fusing28 to look into his as he stared down at her from where he
Dating Part II
sheltered her from any prying eyes.
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“I’m barely breathing, baby. I’ve been gasping for eight years. Seeing you today, I felt my lungs finally fill up for the first time. I know you’re angry. I know you have so much you want to say to me, so much anger and hate directed at me for my stupid actions but baby please, I am begging you, don’t judge the man in front of you today for the mistakes I made back then. I’ve learned lessons. I promise I have.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“Then I will work to earn your trust.”
“No.”
“Say maybe.”
“I’m saying no.” she slowly opened her eyes and looked into his. “I will coparent with you, but I can’t allow myself to love you ever again, Gulliver.”
“Again? I can see it in your eyes now. There is no “again“. You love me, right here, right now. You love me today, January. You’re angry and you’re hurting and I don’t blame you. You have every right to be furious with me. I’m going to win you
back if it’s the last thing I do. I’m going to be the man deserving
your love.”
of you
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Dating Part II
B
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“I don’t want you to. Just give up already and leave me alone.”
“I can’t.”
“I’m begging you to.”
“I know.”
“You can’t make me go back to you.”
“I’ll never stop begging you to let me back in.”
“I’m not going to ever stop fighting you.”
“I’ll fight dirtier.”
“It’s not fair.”
“What’s not fair is you left me without fighting for me, for us. You judged me without hearing the full truth. You robbed me of watching your belly grow with our child.”
“You impregnated me knowing I would leave if I found out the truth.”
“All I wanted was to be a husband and a daddy.” He pursed his lips and kissed her nose.
3/8
You lied to me.”
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Dating Part II
“I did. I promise I will never lie to you again.”
“It’s not enough.”
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“You haven’t gone on a single date in all this time, January. Admit it. You missed me.”
“Boss,” the quiet word coming from behind them made Gulliver look over his shoulder. “We have company.”
“Company?”
“The feds are here. We didn’t take their cell phones but I’m betting they’re cloned. Higher ups probably sent them here to watch until their lead gets in from New York. We did them a favor driving here to Burlington instead of holing up at their
home.”
“Fuck. What are they doing?”
“Right now, they’re just watching. Two went in and took a seat at the restaurant at a nearby table. There are two others sitting in the car watching us.”
“Let them watch.”
She felt sick to her stomach, “they actually cloned our phones?”
4/8
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Dating Part II
t
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“This Davis guy, he evidently wants me and wants me bad.”
“Why?”
“Baby if I knew I’d let you know.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and when she pushed away from him he frowned, “we’re going in as a united front. Let’s make them play their cards. If he thinks we’re together, he’ll panic and show his hand.”
“I don’t like you touching me.”
“Liar. You love me touching you.”
“I want to go on a date.”
“With me?”
“No. With another man.”
“What the fuck for?” he asked as he escorted her back into the
restaurant.
“What are you scared of? Do you think I’ll find love with someone else?”
He stopped walking and he looked at her with a frown creasing
his brow so deeply that his eyebrows were touching the bridge 578.
of his nose. “Impossible.”
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Dating Part II
“Then what do you have to lose?”
“What do you have to gain?”
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
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“That while I don’t need a man to find happiness, I’m not still hung up on you, and I can connect with someone else who makes me feel good instead of full of regret.”
“Fine.”
His comment made her trip over her feet as they entered the restaurant again.
“Fine?”
“Yup. Find someone to date. Date the guy who works in a lab and can’t talk to women.” He gave a laugh, “ten minutes into the date you’ll realize that I am the more charismatic and you love me.”
“Connection is more than sex appeal, Gulliver.”
“You think I’m sexy?” he beamed at her.
6/8
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Dating Part II
“No. I’m sexy. You repulse me because I’m attracted to
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character not bodies,” she lied through her teeth, “and your character is lacking.”
“Ouch. I have one caveat to your dating.”
“What?”
“I want my team to vet them so it’s not someone who will use you to hurt me.”
“You’ll make shit up.”
“No. I won’t. I have all the confidence in the world that any man you date will come up short. You and I are soulmates, my love. Your soul calls to mine, even right now. You are fighting your own intuition to lean into me. It’s why you let them whisk you into another state because you knew, you’d come running back to my open arms if you were too close.”
“No. I ran because you’re a gangster and I didn’t want my daughter living the thug life.”
“The thug life?” he threw his head back and laughed loudly drawing the attention of every patron in the restaurant. “My love, your imagination is something else. My thug life, as you call it, will never touch you or our child. Now let’s go back to the table and spend time with Kaylee, like a family, no?”
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Dating Part II
“When I get remarried to someone else, will you still want family dinners?”
His chuckles continued as he pulled her seat out and then dropped a kiss to the top of her head.
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“Never going to happen but please, keep the jokes coming,”
What did it say about her that she wanted to go on fifty dates just to hear him laughing as he was?
