Another Love Another time

Chapter 27: Then you need to act like it.

"To be honest it was just easier to let her get her way than to address. I didn't want to date anyone, so I didn't see the harm. I knew we were not together, and I've never really said otherwise."

"Does she know you're not together, because I'm telling you man, the way that she's acted in the last year is really possessively."

"We're roommates and friends. That's it."

"Have you slept with her since you lived together?"

"No, I knew I couldn't go there." I knew I couldn't after the last time in college.

"Look it's clear she has feelings for you, but if you ever want to make it work with River, she cannot be living with you. You need to ask her to move out. How would feel if River was living with a guy who she claimed was just her friend?" He points at me. "Make sure psycho is clear where you guys stand in your friendship. I'm telling you that girl thinks your hers."

"I know, I know. I'll take her out to dinner tonight and let her know that she needs to start looking for a new place."

"I don't think you need to take her out, just tell her when you see her tonight."

"No, I need to break it to her gently. She's been a good friend and I don't want to hurt her feelings."

"Do what you think, I just know if you ever want your chance with River that I don't think you will be able to have both in your life from you just told me."

"I know, I know. I just don't want to hurt her feelings." I rub the back of my neck.

He stands up and squeezes my shoulder, "No one does Aug." He heads to his car.

This is not going to be fun. I pull out my phone and send Melissa a text.

Auggie: You free for dinner tonight. I need to talk to you about something.

Melissa: Yes

Auggie: Can you meet me at TJ's tonight at 7pm?

Mackey was right, I need to be really clear.

~~

I get to TJ's restaurant ten minutes early; I decide to go in and have the hostess take me to our table. The restaurant looks busy tonight. I'm surprised they got me seated right away. I hear a ping and see a message from Mackey wishing me luck. I look up to see if she's made it here and I see her walking my way. She's dressed up. She has a slim black dress on that hugs her body, her long hair has been curled and she has put on more make up than she usually has on. Melissa is pretty, but I've only had platonic feelings for her.

"Hey Auggie." She purrs. I think she thinks this is a date. She stands by the table for a minute, when she finally pulls out her chair to take a seat. This is not going to be a fun conversation.

"Hey Mel, how was your day?" Before she can respond the waitress comes up to take our drink orders. I order a sweet tea and she orders a glass of wine. Once the waitress has our order, we turn our attention back to each other.

"It was good, busy, but good. Yours?" she responds.

"Busy too, I'm working on a case, and I was running around every day getting ready for the court case."

She reaches out and put her hand over mine. "You work way to hard." I pull my hand away. If she notices she doesn't say anything. The waitress is back at the table with our drinks, and we are both ready to order. We both put our orders in and make small talk about our day until our food comes out and we dig in. We are in the middle of eating when Melissa puts her forks down.

"So, you wanted to talk to be about something?" Okay I guess we are going to do this now. I put my fork and knife down. I looked up how to break bad news to people. They recommended starting with two positive things about the person before you give them the bad news.

"Yes." I wipe my mouth with the cloth napkin.

I look her in the eyes. "You know how important you are and how much I appreciate everything you did for me when we were in college. I never would have graduated if it wasn't for you." She gives me a big smile. "You know I would do anything for you Auggie."

"I know that, and I'm grateful for everything you've done for me. I hope you know that."

"I do." She's still smiling. This is going better than I expected.

"The thing is now that I'm out of college I'm ready for the next step of my life. I'd like to get married and have kids and I can't do that with you as my roommate, can I? Do you understand what I'm saying" I smile at her trying to lighten up the conversation. I really do not want to hurt her feelings.

She's still smiling, "Yes I understand what you're saying."

"Good, good, because I don..." I'm cut off when my phone starts to ring. I hit the ignore button, but it starts to ring again. When I look down, I see it's my Captain. I look up, "Crap, I need to answer this."

"Take your time." I get up and walk away.

"Hey Captain." I answer.

"Hunt, you need to come down to the station. Someone came in wanting to talk to you."

"I'm kind of in the middle of something." I state.

"Hunt it's about one of your cases. I know you're off, but if I were you, I would get your butt down here."

"Okay, give me about thirty minutes and I'll be there. Make sure they don't leave." I turn around and walk back towards the table.

"Sorry I got to go." I can see she's a little annoyed, but she covers it up quickly.

"Sure, is it for work?", she asks.

"Yeah, can you settle the bill and I'll pay you back later." I lean down and kiss the top of her head. "Thanks for understanding about my next steps. We will talk more about the details later."

"Sure thing. See you later." And then I turn and walk out the door. Yeah, that went a lot better than I expected. Mackey was wrong about Melissa. 

Thanks for reading River and Auggie's story. I know this is a shorter chapter. I had originally had this chapter written a little different so I had to make a few changes. I love the comments and they help me think of things I may have missed when I had initially wrote the chapter. I am reading all of your comments, I don't always comment back because I don't want to give the story away, but I love reading all the theories. 

I have had the majority of this story written for over a year and I knew publishing on this format would give me the encouragement I needed to finish it. I have the next week off and I'm hoping it will allow me to focus on finishing this story. Again thanks for sticking with me. Don't forget to vote or comment.