All Chapters of Teach Me How to Love You: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Lory didn't leave without extracting everything she could first. When we got back to the living room, the interrogation started—what does Noah like, his favorite place to be, what would actually get his attention."He's not predictable," I told her honestly. "The closest I've ever seen him actually interested in a girl was one who competed with him for top of the class in high school. She was the only one who ever really got under his skin.”Lory's face fell. "That's not helpful. I'm not book-smart. That's not my route.""I'm just telling you what I know."She spent the rest of the day with us, unbothered by the intelligence barrier she had just identified. Lunch arrived at our door because she ordered it. I tried getting Noah to leave his room and come join us, but he said he wasn't hungry.Lory left in the evening, and I walked her to the door, both of us standing on the front step."I'm going to delay starting at the office," she said, like she was thinking out loud. "I'll wait unt

Asking Noah about the deal was pointless and somewhere deep down I knew it, but that didn't stop me from trying."I'll trade you," I offered, putting on my best bargaining voice. "You tell me about the deal, and I'll tell you everything that happened at your office today.”"You'll tell me regardless," he said, not even looking up. "And if I really wanted to know, I'd just call Lamar."He was right on both counts. The story came pouring out of me all the same, the excitement that had been building in my chest the whole ride home finally spilling over.When the part about Damien came, Noah actually sat up."Oh, you have got to be kidding me." He dragged a hand down his face. "This is the one time. The one time being on leave hurts. I would have been right there in that room. I would have seen the whole thing.""You should have seen his face, Noah. He looked like he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him.""With you looking the way you do right now?" He gestured vaguely at the whole

What Lory said pulled a real laugh out of me, but Damien and Fiona stiffened like it was aimed at them. Which was for the best, honestly.Damien looked like he was regretting the decision to come to the club.Lory sipped her drink, grinning over the rim of the glass. "This is the part I love the most. The awkward stealing-glances stage."She was right. Like she'd scripted it herself, the two of them kept sneaking looks up at us, neither saying a word, neither touching their drinks again. Just the bottle sitting on the table and their eyes flicking up to where we sat.Lory raised a hand and the server came back over. She leaned in. "Take another bottle to that table. Tell them it's from her again." She nodded toward me. "But this one's for the lady."The server walked off, and when Damien and Fiona looked up at the second bottle arriving, I caught their eyes and mouthed, Enjoy.Fiona's whole face flooded with embarrassment, shrinking into her seat like she wanted to disappear."This,"

I watched Alan hit the bag until his knuckles split open and blood ran down his hand. That was where I stopped being able to look. I turned and left before he could feel my eyes on him.The kitchen was pitch dark when I walked in. I moved along the wall for the switch and flicked it on, the light blinking to life over the island.Grabbing the nearest glass within reach, I filled it with water from the fridge, and sat at the island, replaying everything I'd just seen.Who was Amy?My mind was already reaching for an answer. The woman in the picture out in the living room, the one nobody was allowed to so much as touch. It had to be her.But what had Alan done to her? What could he possibly be sorry for, sorry enough to stand there beating his hands bloody over it?I took a slow sip of water, the questions piling up faster than I could make sense of them."What the fuck are you doing?" Alan barked from the doorway.The glass dropped from my hand to the island as I jumped, spinning towar

You'd think an injury would soften a man. Buy a little grace, a little patience.Not Alan.In whatever twisted logic ran his head, I was breaking his rules on purpose, going out of my way to frustrate him. And he seemed just as determined to frustrate me right back.The closest thing to an apology I got was him asking Peggy how bad the injury was. Not me. Peggy. He never once acknowledged that I was limping around his house because of him, because he'd chosen to drop me rather than hold on a second longer.Not a single day passed without me breaking one of his rules, and he made sure I heard about every last one.Peggy took to reciting the whole list to me each morning before I'd even had breakfast, like going over it one more time might finally make it stick. It never did.No matter how careful I was, something always went wrong, and trust me, I was trying. Hard. Not even for my own sanity at this point but for Peggy's job, which seemed to hang by a thread every time I so much as tou