Page 60 of All She Ever Wanted Was a Real One
The minute the door closed behind her, Oak wasted no time turning back toward me to pick up where our conversation had left off.
“You were saying?”
I took a deep breath and sighed it out. “I’m sorry, Oak. I think I made a huge mistake.”
“You think, or you know?”
Air blew from my cheeks as my confession slipped off my tongue. “IknowI said yes to the wrong guy when the right one has been in front of me. I’ve known it ever since you came back. But I was . . . conflicted.”
“And you aren’t anymore?”
“Not about him. I know that you were always the better choice. The only choice. I was just too afraid to mess up everything. I still am.”
“The last thing you need to be around me is afraid.”
“Can I ask you something?” I inquired, vision planted on him.
“Anything.”
“Would you have let me walk down that aisle if things hadn’t turned out the way they did?”
“Over my dead body.”
“And did you mean it?”
“Mean what?”
“Anything you said when you were giving me those vow ideas?”
“I mean everything I say and do, especially when it comes to you, Lex. You deserve to be loved correctly. And I’m ready to be the man to do it whenever your heart is ready to receive it. I don’t give a fuck what anybody else thinks. I’ve thought about you every day for twelve fuckin’ years, and that’s because I’ve been in love with you all this time. And now that you’ve gotten that fuck nigga out of the way, I’m not letting you go again.”
Oak reeled me into his strong arms, and I was like putty in his hands. The minute his warm lips pressed against mine and his tongue parted my lips, the front door flew open. We quickly pulled away to see Liv standing there with a confused look on her face.
“Hey, have you guys seen my—” She froze mid-sentence when she saw us. “What the fuck is going on?”
There was alwaysthe risk of getting caught. I knew that from the very beginning. I just didn’t think it would happen the way it did. Lex and I were standing too close for comfort and damn sure too close to play it off. She jumped out of my arms the second she locked eyes with Liv, who stood frozen in my doorway as if someone had pressed the pause button.
Before I could open my mouth, Lex went straight into damage control. “Liv, oh my God. It’s not what it?—”
I interjected. “We can explain.”
I instantly felt impaled by my sister’s icy gaze. “What is there to explain other than I walked in on you kissin’ my best friend not even twenty-four hours after she called off her entire wedding!”
“It wasn’t like that, I swear.”
She scoffed while tightly folding her arms across her chest. “All I was looking for were my damn keys! Lord knows what would’ve happened if I’d walked in five minutes later! Ew! I get this is your house and all, but what the hell is wrong with you, Oak?” she accused, her voice cracking like a whip.
The trap door in my stomach gave way. I knew she wouldn’t understand, which was the reason I kept my distance from Lex for so damn long. “Can you please just let me explain?”
Liv shot me a mean side-eye. “What is there to explain when I just witnessed you tongue wrestling with my best friend?”
Lex expelled a hard sigh. “Listen, we never meant to hurt you, but thisisn’tnew, Liv,” she clarified. “And it’s not all on him. It’s been twelve long years in the making.”
Her expression practically shattered into a million pieces. “T-twelveyears? Wow. And neither of you niggas thought to mention it to me in all that time?”
I’d seen every emotion Liv had to offer at some point or another in her life. But the spark of hurt and betrayal that ignited in her eyes and aimed directly at me was almost enough to break a nigga. The weight of our secret suddenly felt like a ton of stones on my chest. Nothing we said from that point forward would make up for the fact that we’d hidden the truth from her for too damn long.
“We didn’t want to hurt you, Liv,” I rationalized.
