Discovering Christina Ch. 05

"See," she smiled, "I told you it was a good idea."

"It was not a good idea," I corrected her. "It was a great idea! That's the most amazing thing I've ever felt."

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I hadn't said a word in the hour or so it had taken Christina to tell her story. Fact was, I didn't really know what to say. Though she'd tried to prepare me when she related her experience in college with Alicia, the Dallas incident felt different somehow. The things that happened in college could be written off as the kind of experimentation a lot of kids do during that time in their lives. But Dallas happened yesterday. I just couldn't put my mind around what it meant to her, what it meant to us.

"Ross, are you okay?" she asked, her voice betraying a little nervousness.

"I . . . I don't know," I told her honestly. "I don't know how I feel."

"There's a little more that happened that I could tell . . ."

"No," I interrupted. "You've already given me more than I can process right now."

"Are we okay?" she asked again. "I want us to be okay. But it couldn't be okay if I hadn't been honest with you."

"I know, sweetie, I know," I said, as reassuringly as I could manage. "I appreciate your honesty. In fact, I love you for your honesty. But you have to understand that I was a little surprised by all this."

"I know you were," she came back. "But of all the things you imagined might have happened, isn't this a lot better than most of them?" She smiled that beautiful smile of hers and melted my heart once more.

"I'll have to admit," I responded, "that this is better than what I'd imagined. As a matter of fact, it was a lot better." This time I was the one smiling.

"Oh, Ross," she said as she threw her arms around my neck, "I do love you so much!"

"I love you, too, baby."

"And Ross," she added after a pause, "There's just one more thing I need to tell you."

"And that would be . . .?"

"Alicia asked if she could come spend next weekend with us," she said with a grin. "She really wants to meet you."