Free The Future of Our Past (The Remembrance Trilogy) by Kahlen Aymes Page A

on the small table beneath the window next to the bathtub within reach, just in case. Pathetic.
    I sat there for a while and added more hot water to the tub, sipping my wine until my eyes started to droop, when the phone vibrated on the table.
    I reached out and grabbed it quickly, my heart praying it was Ryan. Water splashed out of the tub and onto the tile floor, saturating my towel.
    Crap.
    “Hello?”
    “Hey.” Ryan’s voice was tired, but still velvet and soothing.
    “It’s late, Ryan. Why are you still up?”
    “Well…I’m happy to talk to you, too!” he snapped.
    I sighed. Shit this wasn’t where I wanted to begin this conversation.
    “I am happy to talk to you, but I don’t want you to be tired.”
    He was irritated. “Fuck, Julia. I’m a big boy. I go to med school and everything .”
    My lips flat lined and I frowned. “Did you call just to be a dick?”
    “No.” He sighed deeply. “I thought we needed to talk and I can’t reach you any other time of day.” His frustration poured through the phone.
    “I’m sorry, but um…you’ve been pretty unavailable, too. It’s just how things are right now. It isn’t the way I want it.”
    “How do you want it then?” He was impatient and pissy.
    “Do we have to have this fight again? I’m doing everything I can to get a damn promotion but I haven’t been here long enough, Ryan!”
    Silence. I could hear him breathing hard on the other end of the phone.
    When he didn’t answer, I continued softly, “Besides, it sounded like I’d just be in the way anyway.”
    “Don’t start that shit!” he answered sharply. “You know I want you here. That girl was just someone I was helping with coursework.”
    “How convenient it was in the middle of our phone call,” I said bitterly. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I felt my throat thicken and tears prick the back of my eyes. My voice was trembling and I wasn’t sure if it was my emotions or the water getting cold around me that was making me shiver.
    “She followed me! We were supposed to meet at the library!” I could picture him running his hands through his hair.
    “It doesn’t matter, Ryan. It’s none of my business.”
    “I can’t take this shit, Julia. Of course it’s your business!” he said angrily.
    I didn’t answer; instead rising from the water and finding a towel in the hall closet, since the other one now lay in a saturated heap.
    “You were in the bathtub?” He heard the water slosh.
    My teeth chattered as I answered. “Y…y…yeah.”
    He groaned on the other end of the phone, “Oh, God.”
    I wrapped the towel around me and went into my room. The sheets were soft and welcoming as I pulled the covers up to my chin.
    “I’m freezing. Sorry for the chattering.”
    He took a deep breath.
    “So now you’re in the bed, naked ? You’re killing me.”
    I felt my body react to his voice and his words. My skin practically vibrated with it.
    “Ryan…I realize that this distance thing is a problem and we should have talked before. I get how unfair it is. I mean…I don’t even know what the hell is going on with you.”
    “What I know is that I miss the shit out of you,” he said softly, but with defeat in his tone.
    My eyes burned like fire. “I miss you, too…but what do you miss? I mean…are you missing your friend?”
    “Yes.” My heart sank and a tear slipped silently from beneath my lashes and fell onto my pillowcase. “But I also miss what we should have between us. I feel cheated. I mean we were finally…” he began tentatively.
    “I know. I don’t know what’s going to happen now, but the fact is…I’m here and you’re there. I…well, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to transfer until I’ve been at Glamour for at least a year. It seems like forever and…you’re a man—”
    “What exactly are you saying ?” his voice was sharper again, sardonic and pissed.
    “I’m saying that I understand if you just want to be friends…for