Don’t Let Me Break by Linda Verji
CHAPTER 18
Sebastian had never been this nervous and excited about spending a day with a woman. After their dinner, he spent the rest of his night figuring out everything they’d need for their date. This morning, he’d woken up and headed straight to a friend’s store to pick everything up.
Bikes? Rented.
Helmet? Got it.
Elbow and knee pads? Bought them.
He stacked everything in the back of his SUV then headed back home to watch videos about how to teach someone how to ride a bike. By the time noon rolled in, he was relatively confident that he could teach Marley without maiming her.
He called her right before leaving his house.
“Hey!” Marley answered on the first ring.
“Hey.” Sebastian smiled at the sound of her voice. “Are you ready? I’m ready to head out of my place.”
“Yeah, I’m good,” she returned softly. “I’ll wait for you at the parking lot.”
“Great. See you in twenty.” After he ended the call, he couldn’t help replaying that short conversation in his head. She hadn’t stammered even once. He didn’t know why, but that little fact made him ridiculously happy.
On his way to Marley’s house, he couldn’t help grinning and tapping the steering wheel to the beat of the jaunty tune coming from the radio. He couldn’t wait to see her.
As planned, she was waiting in the parking lot. The first thing he noticed was that her hair had come out to play. Her box-braids had been replaced by long, charcoal colored, chunky curls that were pinned on one side and fell to her shoulders in a big afro. She had on a cute gray t-shirt that had ‘I NEED A HUGe glass of wine’ cheekily emblazoned across it, denim shorts that exposed her pert figure and long legs, and the white vans. All in all, she looked delicious; like something he really, really, really wanted to taste.
“You look really nice,” he complimented as soon as he was in the car.
Marley ducked her head down and smiled shyly. “Thanks.”
Something bumped in Sebastian’s chest and his breath caught in his throat. God, she was pretty!
She snuck a look at him. “You look nice too.”
Sebastian wasn’t wearing anything special; black-t-shirt, black joggers and blue sneakers. But her admiring glance made him swell like a peacock. Parts of him that were supposed to be down, started to rise.
Down boy! He mentally scolded himself. If just her shy smile and a compliment was enough to get this reaction from him, how would he survive the close encounters involved in teaching her? Get a grip, Levy. Focus.
He took a deep breath then started the car.
As he made his way to the gate, he asked, “We’re having lunch first, right?”
“Right,” she confirmed.
“What do you want to eat?”
She offered her smile. “Whatever you want is fine.”
Marley’s answer wasn’t a surprise. He’d noticed that she was always willing to give way to other people’s opinions. Some men wanted that in a woman. Sebastian wasn’t those men. He wanted a relationship where they had equal say in what they ate, what they did, and how they spent their time together.
“Uh uh.” He shook his head. “You’re choosing this time.”
Marley was quiet for some time then she hesitantly tried, “Um… Tepui?”
“Tepui?” He furrowed his brow. “Never heard of the place. Is their food good?”
“They have great Venezuelan food.” A second later, she backtracked, “But if you don’t like foreign food, we can go somewhere else.”
“No, no, no. I’m down for it,” he assured her. “I’ve never had Venezuelan food.”
Immediately, a smile of relief lit up her face. “It’s really nice. A bit like Mexican food but less spicy.”
As it turned out, letting her choose the restaurant was a great decision. The food at Tepui was to die for. Though Sebastian originally ordered a plate of pabellón criollo (rice, plantain, beans and steak), he ended up stealing some of Marley’s hallacas (meat tamales), then trying out the bollo pelón (corn dough filled with beef stew) that the waitress suggested.
“How are you even walking?” Marley teased as they left the restaurant. “I think you ate the whole restaurant.”
“It certainly feels like it.” Sebastian rubbed his belly and groaned. “Ugh! How am I going to teach you when I’m this stuffed?”
Her smile immediately fell, and she quickly offered, “We can postpone the lesson if you want.”
“No, no, I’m just kidding,” he rushed to reassure her. A beat later, he narrowed his eyes and with mock suspicion, he teased, “Wait! Are you using me as an excuse to postpone?”
Marley’s eyes widened. “What? No, I’m not.”
“Come on, be honest with me.” Bumping his shoulder against hers, he teased, “You’re trying to get out of our lesson because you’re scared, right?”
The nervousness that flashed in her eyes made it clear that he’d unintentionally hit the mark. But she still insisted, “No, I’m not.”
Dropping the teasing act, he put his arm around her slim shoulders. “You don’t have to be scared. I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt.”
She looked up to meet his eyes, and the trust in her gaze sent an ache straight to his heart. She murmured, “Okay.”
Determined to protect that trust at any cost, he drove them to the park where they were going to ride.
AS IT TURNED out, Marley’s fear was more of a barrier than either of them anticipated.
“I’m going to fall. I’m going to fall,” Marley whimpered as she tried to peddle with little success. The bike kept weaving violently and unsteadily from side to side.
“You won’t fall,” Sebastian puffed as he used all his strength to keep the bike from tilting to the other side and spilling her to the hard concrete. “I got you.”
“I can’t… I can’t… I can’t,” she whimpered, her breathing as broken as her words. Her face was stiff with terror and her grip on the handlebars was so tight it was a wonder they hadn’t broken yet.
“Trust me, Marley. You can do this.” He instructed, “Don’t be so stiff. Try to keep your peddling steady and don’t hold the bars so tightly.”
“I’m trying.” Her voice shook as if she was on the verge of crying. “I’m trying but it’s not working.”
“It will.” He kept a firm hold on her and the unsteady bike. “Trust me.”
Despite her incessant attempts to stop, Sebastian kept assuring her that she could learn. After about an hour of false starts and near falls, she got the hang of it.
“There you go,” Sebastian encouraged. He’d now moved from holding the handlebars and walking beside her to just touching the saddle lightly to make sure he could catch her if she fell. “See, you’re doing it.”
“You haven’t let go, right?” Marley snatched a nervous backward look at him. Though the bike was now steady, her peddling was still hesitant.
“No, I haven’t let go. I’m still holding the bike,” he assured even as he slowly let go. “You can do it.”
Marley didn’t notice that he’d let go. She kept moving forward on her own for quite a while until he was left several feet behind her. She only noticed that he was gone when she stopped the bike with her foot on the ground. The betrayal that filled her expression when she turned and found him missing was priceless. Laughing, he walked to her.
“You lied to me,” she accused when he finally reached her.
“And aren’t you glad I did?” He grinned. “Look, you rode it all on your own without my help.”
But his words weren’t enough to soothe her. She glared at him sulkily. But even while sulking and glaring, she was adorable. Still grinning, he moved closer to envelop her in a side hug. In an instant, her sweet, sandal wood-like smell and her heat warmed his body and stirred his senses.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, drawing in a deeper breath so he could have more of her scent.
Though Marley was stiff in his arms, she didn’t move away. Soon, she relaxed into his body. “It’s okay. I’ll forgive you.”
Though reluctant to let her go, Sebastian moved away from her. “Wanna try again? I’ll let go again, but this time I’ll let you know before I do it.”
Reluctance and anxiety flashed in Marley’s gaze. It looked like she was going to turn down the suggestion. However, she surprised him by slowly nodding. “O- okay.”
That wasn’t the end of her surprises. In her next attempt, all he had to do was touch the saddle for a few steps. When he let her go, she rode quite steadily on her own. After that, he didn’t even have to start her off. She kicked off on her own and went quite a distance before turning back to him with a triumphant grin.
“Who are you and what have you done with my Marley?” he teased when they settled on one of the benches for a break. “I thought it would take you at least a year to learn how to ride, but you did it in just an hour.”
“That’s still a long time though.” Marley wrinkled her nose. “I bet other people learn faster.”
“No, they don’t,” he denied. “It took me weeks to learn how to ride a bike.”
That was a lie. He’d taken to bikes like a duck to water. His father only had to teach him how to ride a tricycle. After that, his curiosity led him to bigger bikes. Going from training wheels to two wheels had taken him less than ten minutes. Of course, that first solo attempt had ended up with him face down in their neighbor’s flower bed (which had left his older brother howling in merciless laughter). But hey, it still counted as a success, right?
Still, he was proud of Marley for working through her fear and didn’t want to ruin her success by showing off his own.
But Marley didn’t look like she believed it. Her head canted to the side and her eyes narrowed. “Really? It took you weeks?”
“It did. I was an awkward child.” Before she could push further and catch him in his lie, he changed the subject. “Since you know how to ride a bike, can we go for a real ride next weekend.”
She frowned. “A real ride?”
“What?” Nervousness danced on his nerves. “You have something else planned.”
“Not really,” she said, but there was reluctance in her gaze, almost as if she didn’t want to go with him.
His nervousness turned to disappointment. “You don’t want to ride with me?”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just…” She hesitated for a beat. “It’s just that I don’t want to steal all your time. Usually, people go for dates on weekends. I don’t want to keep you from…. A man like you must have…. You don’t have to…. I’m sure you have many men you’d like to spend your weekend with instead of me….”
Her monologue was a jumble of incomplete sentences and thoughts. It left Sebastian confused. However, her last sentence caught his attention.
“Why would I like to spend my weekend with men instead of you?” he asked.
“Um…” She returned his frown with a confused gaze of her own. “Because you’re- you’re gay.”
His jaw dropped. “I’m what?”
“You’re gay,” she repeated helpfully.
“Since when?” This was news to him.
Seeming even more confused, Marley asked, “Didn’t you tell Hazel you were gay?”
“What? No?” He couldn’t remember having such a conversation with Hazel. “Why would I tell her something like that?”
Marley’s lips parted in a barely audible gasp. “You’re not gay?”
He shook his head vehemently. “No.”
“Not even a little?”
His shock turned to amusement. “Can someone be a little gay?”
“Yeah… like you know. Bisexual.”
“Nothing against gays or bisexuals, but no.” Chuckling, he shook his head. “That’s not how I ride.”
This was unbelievable. All this time Marley thought he was gay? After all the subtle flirting he’d been doing with her over the last few weeks, she should’ve known that he was straight. Yeah, he hadn’t told her outright that he was attracted to her but all the signs were there. Any other woman would’ve picked up on them. Then again, Marley wasn’t any other woman. She often got so lost in her head that she’d probably missed it all.
Well, it was time to change that.