Page 116 of Wicked & Wildflower

She laughs. “You’re one to talk.”

That’s true. The last time I hooked up with someone I didn’t know, I fell hopelessly in love with her, which might be more embarrassing than the nameless one-night stand itself.

“So…” she draws as she grabs a pair of sweatpants off the ground and hikes them up her legs. “How are you doing? Why are you here? When do you leave?” She smiles at me sarcastically as she falls back into her bed.

“I’m great.” I take a slow spin around her apartment. “Is the furniture yours or did it come with the place?”

“Came with the place.”

“So, what? Just the clothes and books are yours?”

Her eyes narrow, studying me intently as she drawls, “Essentially. Why?”

“Great.” I smile. “Less we have to ship that way.”

She sits up straight, tucking her knees against her chest. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You’re coming home, Elena. Today.”

She laughs, stopping the moment she realizes I’m not joining her. “Are you kidding?”

“No,” I say, moving to step into the door.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Yes. You are.”

She swings her legs off the bed, leaning toward me. “You can’t make me do a goddamn thing.”

“Fine.” I expected this to happen. I have a plan in place, so I remain calm. “I can’t make you do anything.” I slide down the door until I’m sitting against it, raising my legs and letting my hands rest on my knees. “I can wait until you’re ready to work through whatever shit is going on in your mind. I’ll sit right here with you.”

“You are blocking my door,” she growls. “You show up to my fucking apartment without warning, demand I pack up my whole life, and thenblock my doorwhen I say no? Who the fuck do you think you are?”

“Something tells me you didn’t have many plans today anyway, Lele. In fact, I’d be hard-pressed to believe you have any plans any day,” I say simply. Her nostrils flare, but she turns her head away from me. “I think you sit here and let yourselfrot, and you’re afraid to come home because you don’t want the rest of us to see it—but the thing is, Elena, we do. Wefeelyou dyingfrom the inside out. I feel it, right here.” I point at my chest. She refuses to look at me, jaw trembling as she stares at the wall. “We hear it in your voice, in the silence you leave when you don’t answer our calls. We don’t have to see it. We know.

“I can understand your fears, but you’ve got to try understanding mine too. Imagine if the roles were reversed, and you were in my shoes? Imagine if Leo was refusing to attend your wedding?”

I watch a tear roll down her cheek, and she bats it away, thinking I didn’t see it.

I don’t tell her about Leo’s ultimatum, because I know it’d only make things worse. Elena’s too damn stubborn to be swayed by something like that. She’d challenge him to give up on her and play into all of his fears. She’s afraid those in her life expect the worst from her, and her defensive nature causes her to try and live up to those expectations when she feels cornered.

“You know if I had told you I was coming, you would’ve tried to get me out of it. You would’ve found some excuse to keep me away, to avoid any conversation of you coming home. Youknowthat, Lele.” She still doesn’t look at me. “I’ll sit here until you’re ready to talk, until you’re ready to go and face whatever it is you’re so afraid of. But I’m not leaving without you.”

She looks at me now, angry tears glistening in her eyes.

“You’d do the same for me.”

Her features soften just noticeably, and she gives me a shallow nod, her only glimpse of understanding. But she says nothing, leaning against the wall behind her bed and closing her eyes.

We sit in silence.

“I don’t do it on purpose.” The words come out on a cracked whisper, startling me from my thoughts.

Thoughts about Dahlia, if I’m being honest. What she’s doing. What she ate today. If she’s missing me as much as I’m missing her.Fuck.I’m in deep.

I don’t know how much time passed in silence, but I do know my ass is numb from sitting on my sister’s floor. I look up at her, finding her on her side, head resting on her pillow as she faces me.

“Don’t do what on purpose?” I ask.

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