Page 142 of Dissolving Prejudice

“Are you close to her?” I asked, and he nodded.

“Yeah… she practically raised me.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. But thinking about it, I don’t know a lot of things about you,” I joked while brushing a hand over my freshly faded hair, only Dylan didn’t seem to find me funny. If any, I’d say he looked nervous. Feeling like crap, I reached my hand out and patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

Covering my hand with his, he smiled softly. “Don’t be, it’s fine.”

He had a beautiful smile that, over the last few months, gave me so much reassurance. We only met this year, but we became close immediately. Dylan was always there when I needed advice about my relationship, and it felt good to have someone so attentive in my life. I mean, he truly cared about me, always asking questions about my life and Shay-Lee. It was nice to have someone to talk to for a change, someone who was fully on my side.

“You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here,” he said when I dropped my hand from him.

“To be honest, Shay-Lee was in a car accident—”

“Oh my God! Is he okay?” Dylan gasped.

“Oh, God, yes,” I assured him with my hands held before me. “He’s actually perfectly fine if you can believe it. I mean, his car got completely wrecked, yet he came out of it without a scratch.” It truly was a miracle when you thought about it. Going through such an accident and coming out of it alive? Fuck—

“That’s a relief,” Dylan said, cutting into my thoughts. “So you being here… does it mean you two are back together?”

“No, not at all.” If only he knew how not back together we were. “I know we talked about it, and you told me you have a feeling we’d get back together, but I’m sorry to disappoint you; ain’t no way it’s going to happen. He and Diesel are, well, endgame.”

Dylan’s face fell, and he looked dead-ass disappointed. “I’m so sorry, Jordy. For some reason, I really thought you two would end up together.”

“Yeah…” I rubbed the back of my neck.

Dylan continued to look at me with those beautiful eyes of his when, suddenly, a thought occurred to me. “I was thinking maybe you’d like to do something later?” I didn’t know why I just said that, but I did, and it was too late to take it back with how he was smiling at me.

“Do something like on a… date?”

My cheeks heated up, and I pressed my lips together. “I-I guess you could call it a date?”

Dylan’s smile grew bigger. “I would love that,” he said, and I felt like a huge relief was taken off my shoulders.

“For real?”

“Yeah. But I need to go now, so how about I call you once I’m done here?”

Smitten, I nodded. “Yeah, for sure.”

He then pulled out his phone, and as he did, I noticed he had a new charm attached to it.

Dylan loved cute stuff like this.

“That’s cute.” I pointed over the small elephant when Dylan raised his phone and looked at it himself.

“Yeah, a friend gave it to me a while ago. Anyway, I’ll call you later. Okay?”

“I’ll be waiting.”

After he left, I moved my ass to my car. I’d never thought of Dylan in a romantic way, but now that Shay-Lee and I were over, it made sense to see an opportunity in Dylan. He was beautiful, funny, and caring. Maybe he’d help me finally move on.

Shay-Lee

I looked at the clock ticking on the wall one last time before I decided I had waited enough. Twenty minutes had passed since Jordan left. Twenty fucking minutes. How long did it take for one damn doctor to come here? Since I felt perfectly fine and had no more minutes to waste, I stood up and reached for my clothes, which were folded on the table beside the bed. With my back facing the door, I began stripping out of the hospital gown. Once naked, I reached for my shirt and then my jeans.

“Fuck,” I hissed as I slipped my fingers through a rip in my jeans.

They were brand-new.