Sweetly Yours

Chapter Seventeen; Sweetly Complete

I stood up out of my stool, attempting to mask my nerves as I slowly made my way over to Jamie. I settled myself down on the loveseat, and looked over at Jamie who was half-lying half-sitting up on the sofa.

“Look,” I started quietly, “I’m sorry.”

My eyes cast down, my eyelashes brushing against my cheeks as I thought of how I could continue. What should I say?

The truth, the voice in the back of my head instructed me, just tell the truth. Honesty is the best policy, right? Lies just give an excuse for karma to come a-knocking.

“Kye . . . he put me on the spot. I won’t say that he forced me to tell him the story, because he didn’t. He just worded everything so—he was so sure of himself, I couldn’t. I couldn’t let him think we were getting it on, Jamie! He was going to find out anyway. This is Kye we’re talking about, of course he would think up a way to weasel it out of one of us. And I was going to tell you everything today, anyway, right? In our little chat. I was waiting for you to wake up when Kye walked in,” I explained, my voice begging him to understand. Then something hit me, “wait . . . how much of the story did you hear?”

Jamie shrugged, his lip quirking upwards ever so slightly, “all of it.”

Well, he answered me, that’s a good sign, right?

And you can’t forget that adorably attractive lip quirk.

“. . . and, um, how do you feel exactly, about, well, this?” I asked nervously, cheeks still tinged warm and inevitably pink. Biting my lip, I courageously brought my eyes up to meet the now very familiar sight of Jamie’s murky green orbs.

Jamie’s eyebrow rose in question, “this being, you telling Kye everything before telling me . . . or this being, how do I feel about the whole story?”

“Um, both of them?” I replied softly, although it came out more like a question than a straight answer. Butterflies started to flutter and swat around in my stomach as I (impatiently) waited for Jamie’s answer.

“Well,” Jamie started to reply in a slow, contemplative voice, “I suppose, I’m not mad at you for telling Kye before me. I know how Kye can get, so it’s believable that he would worm his way into an answer off of you. And like you said, you were going to tell me anyway, so I have no reason to be mad at you.”

Some of the butterflies dyed down as relief flooded through me.

Jamie wasn’t mad at me!

I smiled warmly in relief, “thank you, Jamie. For understanding. That’s really sweet and kind of you. Thank you.”

Was that the slightest dotting of pink blotted onto Jamie’s cheeks?

Or perhaps the lovesick optimism was returning, once again. Hm, I guess I’d never know.

“Not a problem,” Jamie replied, returning my smile gently. “Now, I suppose you want me to answer your second ‘this’, now?”

I nodded, although I tried my best not to come across too eager.

Jamie grinned, “well, then. I suppose I should start off by saying your—or should I say, our?—story was very eye-opening and enlightening. Finally, everything makes sense. How you reacted to certain situations, your randomly odd behaviour. Your confession—we never did talk about those, did we? Now all of the pieces of the puzzle have been slotted into place, and I feel . . . I feel . . .” Jamie waved his hands around in the air, as if searching for the right word. “I feel . . . complete? Yes, I feel complete.”