Page 78 of Fool Me Twice
“And yet the right time never comes.”
“No.” I hung my head and laced my hands between my knees. “It doesn’t.”
Georgia said nothing. I wondered if she’d already bought her ticket back to Baltimore. If she would quit the company. If we would ever talk again.
“I’m sorry.” I lifted my face. “I’m sorry for hurting you. I know this has driven a wedge between us.”
She shook her head, her shoulders bowed over with sadness and defeat. “This was supposed to be our second chance,” she whispered.
“And I blew it.” My throat tightened.
“Yeah,” she murmured. “You did.”
I raked my fingers down my face. “I understand if you want to leave. Even if you want to quit. I will write you a good referral to any company you wish to work for.”
She stared at me. “I didn’t say I want to quit my job.”
Very well. Then she just wanted to break up with me.
Working with her and never getting to touch her again would be hard, but I would deal with it. I would take the pain like a man. I’d failed at our relationship, but I wouldn’t get in the way of her professional success.
“Do you want me to leave the job?” she asked.
“No!” I reached for her hand, but the moment my fingers grazed hers I realized I was probably crossing a boundary, so I withdrew my touch.
“I don’t want to either.”
I nodded, wanting to ask about us but knowing it wasn’t the right time. If Georgia wanted to break up, then I’d find out soon enough.
“Don’t you see,” she said, “that history is repeating itself?”
I cringed. “I know. I’ve let you down, just as I did before.”
“I wasn’t talking about me. I meant with Sebastián.”
I stared at her, confused.
“You pushed me away eleven years ago,” she said, “because you couldn’t be honest with me. And now you can’t be honest with Sebastián and the same thing is happening. He’s only ten and he’s having behavioral issues. What do you think will happen when he’s fifteen?”
I drew a ragged breath. “You’re right…”
“At this point, Rodrigo, I can see him leaving home the first moment he can and never talking to you again. I know that might sound extreme, but it’s a possibility.”
“I know.” Tears pressed against my eyes.
How had life gotten to this point? I’d done everything I could to give Sebastián a good life, to protect him. Now I was coming to see that, in the end, more than anything else, I had failed him.
Thank goodness my brother and sister-in-law were not around to see what I had done. They would be so disappointed.
“It’s not too late.” Georgia’s palm covered my hand. “You can still tell him the truth. He’s been begging for it in every roundabout way he knows how.”
“I am afraid that he will hate me,” I rasped.
She shook her head. “I don’t think he will. He loves you, Rodrigo. All he wants is for you to fully show up. To be the father that he’s craving, to give him the answers that every person needs. Can you do that?”
Slowly, an ember of hope flickered to life in my chest. Georgia made what previously felt like an insurmountable obstacle seem easy.
“Yes,” I said. “I can do it.”