Read That One Time for Free Online Page B

someone who looks nice. I wouldn’t have to train her for the role, either. Most of all, I need someone who doesn’t expect me to pretend I’m in love with her.”
    Farica set the glass down. Crossing her arms over her chest, she looked at her cousin pointedly and asked, “And that’s the crux of the problem, right? You will have to pretend with Thelma because you’re already in love with someone else.”
    His blue eyes cooled. “Bullshit.”
    Farica’s eyes, also the same shade of blue, became just as cool. “You’re the one saying a lot of BS and you’re close to making your life full of BS, too.”  
    “I don’t want to talk about this—”
    “We have to if you’re really going to marry that bitch,” she exclaimed hotly. “Nic, open your eyes, for God’s sake! You already have a girl you love and she loves you—”
    “You can’t be sure of that!” His sudden snarl stunned her, and more shockingly, the deep burning passion that underlined those words.
    He really had fallen in love at first sight , Farica realized with a quiet gulp. The knowledge knocked her sideways. It was real then. The kind of insta-love that most people thought was a myth – it was real. It had to be because the proof of it was in her cousin’s eyes…and in her own heart.
    “We’ve just been fooling around the past year, Fari. If she…” Nic exhaled. “If she truly did love me, don’t you think she’d have done everything possible to fly here so we could see each other again?”
    “She’s poor, Nic.”
    He smiled humorlessly. “Love’s supposed to make the fucking world go round and not money, right?”
    She shook her head, irritated, having just realized that her cousin was determined to see fault in the girl’s every action. “You also told her you were married and that if someone saw you with another woman, your divorce wouldn’t push through. Face it, Nic. You gave her every reason to believe that she’d hurt you if she came here.”
    “If it was me, I’d do anything to have her with me.”
    “Really, Nic?” She raised a brow. “Because if that’s true, then why haven’t you ever gone to her again after all this time?” She could see her words sinking in as Nic’s face whitened in realization.
    “I know you’re scared,” she said softly. “When you think about it logically, what happened between you two doesn’t make sense but…you alone know what’s in your heart and how you really feel about her, Nic. Not other people. I just want you to be happy and I don’t think Thelma will make you happy.”
    He whispered harshly, “And you think she will?” Just saying the words out loud, just acknowledging the possibility of being with Ayah again made it hard for Nic to breathe. For over 12 long months, he had forced himself to deny his feelings and pretend that Ayah was forever a part of the past – someone he could only reach through lies, deceit, and the sweetest conversations on the planet.
     
    “I always remember that time we met on the plane…”
    “I never stop thinking about you. When I’m sad, I look at your photo and I get just a little bit more courage and strength. Well, it helps that I also pretend I’m six-feet-plus tall, have the body of a MMA fighter, and look terrifyingly powerful as hell when I scowl.”
    “I can feel how tired you are, lieverd. Please go to sleep? We can talk next time. Tell me when and I’ll be awake. Doesn’t matter what time. But please rest now…you need it…”
     
    Nic shook the memories away. “You make it sound so fucking easy,” he said bitterly. Throughout his life, he had survived by relying on no one else. Not even his family had been able to penetrate the shields he had erected around his heart. Only Ayah had found a way to sneak herself past the shields, and her presence in his heart grew a little bigger each day. And every time it did, he became a little more restless, a little more uneasy, and a little more terrified that he was