Page 225 of Swallow Your Sorries

“I’ll give you anything else.Anything.”

She shakes her head. “I’m not your little Cinderella. Girlies like me already have everything. Materialistic wise anyway. I only want that box.”

“Well, you can’t have it.”

“Then I won’t drop out of the play,” she shrugs and I glare at her. “This isn’t about me. Or Étienne. Or even Elle. It’s about you.”

That takes me aback.

“What are you talking about?”

“Elle dreams about you.

“Who can blame her?”

“That girl tells it all in her sleep. She cries for you. Cries for you to leave her alone. Moans for you to stay. She’s all over the place.”

“You said she’d been getting over her nightmares.”

“You’re a different kind of nightmare from her father. She barely has those anymore. They’re mainly about you. And yours are mainly about her now.”

“How would you know?”

“Étienne tells me everything.”

“Does he now? Is there anything he doesn’t tell you? Oh wait...”

“It won’t work. Changing the subject.”

“You’re like a dog with a bone.”

“Relentless,” she agrees. “Étienne says you sleep in the greenhouse way less often now and on nights when you do, Elle’s missing from the dorm. I think you too are like pain and therapy for each other all wrapped in one.”

I already knew that. I don’t want to hear it though.

“Don’t go soft on me now Aria. You’ve always been hard. Do what you do best and turn a blind eye to shit that doesn’t involve you. I don't need you to play therapist.”

“I’ve always been soft for you, Gant. And you’ve been hard for Elle, too hard. But I would’ve thought you both would have relieved that by now with a hard fuck and a heart-to-heart.”

“Who says we haven’t?”

“If you had, you wouldn’t still be plotting. You’re like a fucking monkey.”

I arch a brow.

“You won’t let go of one branch until you’ve grabbed another.”

“Why would I? I’d fall.”

“But you don’t know where you’d land.”

“I don’t come to you for advice Aria. I come to you to scheme.”

“And I’m helping you scheme your way into love.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Am I?” she asks. “Isn’t that what you want from Elle? Isn’t that why you haven’t fucked her yet? You’re waiting for her to show you some sign of love that you so desperately crave?”

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