Page 11 of Broken Promise
“Why are you here, Karmen?”
Hurt fills my chest and I want to strike outat him with the words running through my mind. I don’t, though. Heis in pain and he’s lashing out.
“I’m here because you’re my friend.”
“No, I’m not.”
****
Wesley Blake
I can’t handle being around Karmen rightnow. My mind and emotions are all over the place. I’m vulnerableand unpredictable and I know from previous experience that thiscombination never ends well.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re not my friend. I was your brother’sfriend.”
She stands and glares down at me afterputting out the cigarette. Her hands are on her hips and her babypink tank top has lifted showing a sliver of her stomach.
“Don’t be a dick,” she seethes.
I catch her off guard, pulling her into mylap.
“I’m not your fucking friend, Karmen,” I sayenunciating every word. “I’m the guy trying to do the right thingand you’re the woman who is making that very hard to do.”
“What?”
“I’ve been drinking. A lot,” I say so sheknows the truth. “Booze and emotionally charged situations rarelywork out well.” My thumb rubs across the strip of exposed skin andmy gaze is fixed to the action. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Wesley?”
“I did the right thing,” I say softly butI’m not talking to her anymore. “I pushed you away. But now you’rehere and I don’t want to be the good guy anymore.”
Her hands cup my face forcing me to look ather. “What are you talking about?”
“If I tell you the truth, I’ll fuck upeverything. You need to leave, to live your best life, and find agood man,” I say praying she finally listens to me.
“You’re a good man,” she whispers. “Tommyused to say you’re the best man he knew.”
Her words hit me like a truck. I never knewhe felt that way. I knew we were friends, that he loved me like abrother, but never this. When we were younger, I was always gettinginto trouble. At school, with our parents, even with the law. I wasrebellious and difficult, but I always had Tommy, the voice insidemy head pushing me to do better, be better. He helped me buy thisdamn bar and start a new path for myself whether I deserved it ornot.
My head lowers until it lies in the crook ofher neck.
“I don’t want you to leave.”
“I never wanted to leave,” she replies. “ButI didn’t know how to be here anymore.”
“If I tell you the truth there is no goingback,” I confess. “This will change everything.”
“Maybe it’s time for a change because Ithink we’re both miserable with how things are going rightnow.”
She’s right. I know she is. My lips skimacross the skin along her collarbone.
“I lied,” I whisper. “Not really, I justdidn’t tell you the truth. Instead, I let you think whatever youwanted.”
“Really?” she asks in a husky voice.
“Yeah, I did. Because it was easier thatway.”