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The Test
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Noah Please Talk To Me
A week after their Rita conversation, Veronica was feeling as indecisive as ever about moving things forward with Noah. His admission about how and why things had happened the day after Thanksgiving and the fact that he gave her the go-ahead to question him—that she was entitled to explanations about his personal life—should've have been a deciding factor. But ironically, something else about that conversation had made her more aware of how frightening it was to put herself out there like that.The only times in her life that she could remember her heart feeling this incredibly vulnerable and ready to fall apart over a guy had unbelievably both been because of him: first, the night after his fight when she was forced to see him with a groupie and then later that same night when she found out about Rita. But hearing that he'd seen Rita the day after she'd finally given into her desire for him—the very day after he'd admitted to being in love with her—had such an instant crushing effect
Noah Her Ex
The guys came over on Sunday and were there all day. It'd been a while since they'd had a virtual boxing fest like the old days. Noah checked with Roni first before okaying Hector to bring over his PlayStation 4. They worked on changing the oil on Roni's car all morning and then moved indoors for the boxing.Noah told her she didn't have to, but Roni insisted on making them snacks and then lunch. She made sandwiches which she cut in half and piled high on a tray. Though the guys all said they weren't hungry, the pile of sandwiches were inhaled within minutes.Her fussing over them had actually helped to distract her and get her mind off what she'd been moping about for days. She and Nellie were still on the outs, and Roni was beside herself with guilt over having hurt Nellie's feelings.Noah tried to tell her she'd been right to speak up and tell Nellie how she felt, especially given the fact that Roni said Nellie would have done the same thing had the tables been turned. Still, as
Noah Be Warned
"Wow," Derek said as they walked down her porch steps. "I haven't seen that kid in years. I'm surprised he's not in jail."Veronica turned to him, her arms crossed in front of her. "What makes you say that?"Derek chuckled. "That kid sat outside my office more than my damn receptionist when he went to Garfield."She wasn't sure, but it made sense that Derek might have reason to try to discredit Noah. She'd seen his expression when she told him Noah was her roommate. Just the fact that she'd previously mentioned her new roommate was a guy she was sure had already gotten him speculating. His showing up here unannounced today was not on impulse as he'd said it was. Derek did nothing on impulse.But she decided to bite anyway. "Why was he at your office so often?""Typical troublemaker. Did you run a background check on this guy before letting him move in?"The thought had never even occurred to Veronica. "No, because he's a friend. What do you mean troublemaker? What kind of trouble
Noah Double Standards
"To say hello." She walked over to the fridge and pulled out a can of soda. "You want one?" she asked, holding out the can."No, I'm good. Did you know he was coming?""No." She popped open the soda and took a swig before setting it down on the counter. "He said he'd been meaning to stop by for a while."She wouldn't encourage an interrogation by offering too much up front, but she could understand his concern. Given the fact that he'd allowed her to unleash her questions about Rita when she hadn't the slightest will to hold them back, she'd allow him to ask away, but she'd keep her answers short and to the point."So are you two friends again, or is there something else I should know?"She hadn't even realized her eyes had been glued to her slice of pizza until the change in his tone made her look up at him. "Should know?""Yeah, like you planning on picking up where you left off with him?""No, of course not." A simple no would've sufficed.Adding the of course not was uncall
Noah Got It Bad
NoahLast night's kiss had gone on extra-long. Noah could see he was making progress in breaking through Roni's defenses. He understood why she was still hesitant to go any further. He wasn't without worry either. The possibility that something could go wrong was too real. But there was no way he couldn't try. It was a huge risk but one he felt was absolutely worth the reward should it all work out, and he was certain it would.For now, he'd take what she would give him, knowing they had somewhat of an unspoken agreement. Getting her life back to what it used to be was important to her, and he'd respect that. She did say she wanted to deal with that first before making any major changes in her life. So he'd be content knowing she wasn't considering anyone else either. Most importantly, although she set down the law that she would handle Kratz and there would be no ass kicking should he ever show up again, she did once again mention she had no interest in reconciling with the guy, not
Noah This Changed Everything
VeronicaEven though their routine had changed a little this week because of Noah's extra training, once home in the evenings, everything was blissfully the same. Noah flipped through the channels as Veronica lay on the sofa, resting her head on his lap, playing with his phone. She still couldn't believe the amount of things she could do with it. Noah had even showed her an app that she could use to start her car. It was unreal.She resized the picture she'd taken that weekend of the guys while they were completely engrossed in their game. It was so cute; they all looked like their actual lives depended on whatever it was they were concentrating so hard on. The app she was playing with would let her add thoughts over their heads. She was in the middle of adding thoughts above Noah's head when she hit something and the screen switched over to an incoming text—from Rita.Veronica's stomach did that weird thing it'd done just about anytime there'd been mention of Rita—the same thing it
Noah Getting Her Life Back
The next morning, Veronica made it a point to be up earlier than the norm. Noah was usually up before her even now that she'd gone back to work, because of his early morning runs. But today, Veronica wanted to spend as little time with him as possible before she left.She was just filling her commuter mug with coffee when he walked in the back door. He wore the usual dark gray hooded sweatshirt he wore every morning. He stopped quickly at the sight of her, taking his earpiece out of his ear and pulling his hood back. "Hey." His smile was so sincere her insides warmed. "You're up. How you feeling?"She returned the smile, attempting to do what she'd decided after a long night of soul-searching and arguing with that little voice of reason, which so often won, but hadn't been winning lately. Noah was one of the best things that had happened to her. Her mother often spoke of people being brought into your life for a reason. He'd been there when she needed him most, but she'd confused thi
Noah Changes
Veronica texted Derek back, agreeing to meet him at a fast-food burger joint. Normally she headed straight home after work to grab something to eat, change, and get some things done around the house before heading out to the gym. But today she could skip that. She'd eat with Derek then head home and get ready for the gym.Changes—she was already making them, and she felt empowered by it: first Nellie, now this. Today was turning out even better than she'd hoped.As tempted as she was to ask Derek to elaborate more on Noah's "drug trafficking," she didn't want to make this about Noah. She was, after all, doing this in part to break free of what was beginning to feel like a hold Noah had on her.All in all the dinner went quite well with Derek insisting they should do this more often. Veronica agreed, and Derek said he'd text her again soon. They never did get to the topic of their relationship remaining a friendly one, but she intended to bring it up the second there was any mention
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