The Upward Ripple

Cynthia was confused. She wanted to drop her weapons and just walk up to him and throw her arms around him. To assure him that it was all over.

“It took a while before The Outlaws finally got bored with me, but I was still not up to facing Elise. I was still carrying the torch for the betrayal she had served my mother… sometimes I think it is still there. The burning desire to see her punished for what she did to my mother.”

“So, you chose to stay away,” Cynthia said, looking at him. Her heart was full of sympathy.

“I had to. I don’t know how to hold a pretentious conversation… I mean, I have no shades of grey. It is either black or white with me and it was all black when with Elise,” he explained. “So, that day I went back to the house was the first time I had been in that room since before I moved out of Pine Grove. I was lost in my own world and when you touched me… I guess I never really got over the whole thing with The Outlaws.”

Cynthia could only look at him.

“I’m sorry… I don’t think there is anything else I can say or do to tell you just how sorry I am,” Nate said as he picked up his t-shirt from the floor and pulled it on.

“I heard about a guy in locks about the same time you came back,” Cynthia said as he picked up his jacket.

“Well, I did have locks, but I got rid of them when I was in New York.” He shrugged. “It was something I needed to do to let go of the past.”

There was a long silence before he spoke again.

 “You don’t have to work with me anymore if you don’t want to… I mean, if you feel afraid around me. I can close the deal on the house with another realtor. Although, I would feel much better if you decided to stick with me.”

She looked at him and bit her lip.

“I… I… “her voice trailed off. She was speechless. She had just so much to process.

“I’ll leave now. Whatever the young family offered…. Take it. I think they will be perfect for that house.”

He turned around and began walking towards the door.

“Wait,” Cynthia said when she finally found her voice. He turned around and looked at her and once again, she lost her voice. She had so much to tell him. She wanted to tell him that she was not exactly perfect either. That she also had her own skeletons in the closet. That she’d had to do terrible things in her past just to get though life and that those things that she did, the experiences she’d had to endure all made her afraid of people who were a little too physically aggressive.

“What is it?” he asked as he looked at her.

“I will see the sale through,” she said in a soft voice and he smiled.

“Okay. You have no idea just how happy that makes me.” He exhaled loudly and put on his jacket. “Let me know when the house is in Escrow.”

She nodded and bit her lip.

“I’ll do that.”

He looked at her for a long minute before he opened the door. She looked at him expecting him to walk out but he didn’t. He was just standing there, lingering and for the first time, she realized that she was not so scared of him anymore. All she wanted to know was what was on his mind that made him stand at the doorway especially after such a confession. She knew that for him to come over and make such a confession must have taken a lot of strength.

“I hope you will because I really, really like you,” Nate said without turning around and Cynthia’s heart skipped a beat.

She wanted to say something but all she could do was stand there. There were two voices in her head screaming two different things. It was like having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other and she did not know which one to listen to. The stronger voice in her won and she ran out just before Nate could speed off on his two wheeled machine.

“Wait!” called out as loudly as she could.

Nate had just turned on the engine and was about to put on his helmet when she ran out of her house. She looked at him as he turned off his engine.

“What do you mean by that?” she asked, and he shook his head.

“Cynthia, I said quite a bit in there.”

“The last part about liking me.”

Nate shrugged again.

“What about it?” he asked.

“Do you mean ‘like me’ like the way I just met your friend’s girlfriend Deloris and I like her or…. What the hell do you mean?” she asked as she looked into his eyes.

Nate smiled and a small laugh escaped his chords before he intensified the look, he was giving her.

“What do you think I meant?” he asked.

Cynthia shrugged.

“I tracked down your address and came down here…bore my soul to you and told you things that even my best friend doesn’t now. I mean, I would not tell you any of that if I didn’t mean it, now, would I?” he explained and she just stood there, once again speechless.

She was attracted to him. That much she knew. Hell, she had known that since the very first time they met at The Spilt Bean. Back then, she had felt that there was something about him that she could not put her finger on but now that he had told her everything about what she had been wondering for so long. She was still standing in front of him, all those thoughts running through her mind when he reached for her cheek and held the side of her face ever so gently. He let his thumb stroke her chin gently.