Impossible Things by Alexandra McBrayer Page A

way down the stairs and she gathered her purse from the sitting room. When she turned back to the door he was standing there and he had a box in his hand. “I have something for you.”
    She was instantly mad. “Is this payment?”
    His face contorted and he looked shocked as he said, “Of course not! I bought this last night after our day together. I saw it and thought of you. I just wanted you to have it.”
    She shook her head. “I can’t take it and I have to give the ring and bracelet back.”
    He shook his head. “Now you insult me. I bought you the ring because it gave you pleasure. Because I had never seen such a look of longing on anyone’s face before as I did that day. I wanted you to have what you wanted. I wanted to satisfy that longing for you.”
    He was still holding out the box and she shook her head again. “Thank you but I can’t.”
    “Can’t or won’t?”
    She frowned. “Does it matter?”
    He nodded. “To me it does. I want you to have it. I like buying you things. I like thinking of you and seeing something that I think would please you. So please take it.”
    She took the box from him and opened it. It was a necklace. The pendant was shaped like a teardrop, coated in diamonds, at least three carats, and it hung from a chain that she knew by looking at it was platinum.  It was delicate and beautiful and she felt sad looking at it.
    “What’s wrong? You don’t like it?” His voice was concerned and he came towards her to touch her arm.
    She looked up at him and there were tears in her eyes. “It’s beautiful but I can’t take it.”
    His face was concerned and he reached out and pulled her to him, pinning her arms, and the box between them. The smell of him, the feel of him was too much and she began to cry. He rubbed his big, warm hands up and down her back for a minute but then she pulled away.
    She stepped back and held out the box to him. “Thank you Lucas. For everything, but I can’t take it.”
    He took a step back and put his hands behind his back, his voice when it came was thick and his accent was prominent. “I can be stubborn too. I’m not taking it back because it belongs to you and always will.”
    She thought about setting it down on a table and walking away but she didn’t. Looking at him, looking deep into his green eyes she opened her mouth and said the words that she had never said to another human being. “I can’t take it because I have a problem…an addiction.”
    She saw that he was perplexed. A line formed between his heavy eyebrows as he frowned and asked, “What kind of addiction?”
    She took a deep breath and looked down at the box in her hand. “Jewels. Ever since I was small I’ve wanted jewels. And….and when I was younger I did things for them.”
    She stopped and looked up at him. His face was clouded and his eyes were curious. “What kind of things?”
    Not taking her eyes from his she said, “I stole. I was a thief when I was young. I went into jewelry stores and I would ask to see something and when the sales people were distracted I would run. I got into a lot of trouble and had it not been for my parents I would have gone to jail.”
    His face had cleared and as she watched he bit down on his lip before asking, “You were a jewel thief?”
    She nodded. “And now…now I have a lot of debt because I don’t steal them anymore, I buy them.”
    “What does your Sam think about this?”
    She searched his eyes, trying to get a sense of how he felt about her revelation but she couldn’t read him. She told him, “He doesn’t know. He thinks I like sparkly things and that they’re all fakes. I don’t have anything as nice as this or the bracelet or ring because I can’t afford things like that even on my credit cards.”
    He rubbed his jaw. “You don’t think you should tell him before you marry him?”
    She looked down at the floor and her red, ballet flats. “He won’t understand and besides I’m going to try and borrow