Page 114 of Desserts for Stressed People

I groan, pressing a finger to my temple. “Okay. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“A few minutes? Didn’t you hear—”

I press the red button with so much strength I’m surprised my screen doesn’t crack, then turn to my friend. The one who knows me the best in the whole world. The one who betrayed me and manipulated me.

“Please, tell me you forgive me. You’re my sister, Heaven. Tell me you understand.”

Emma’s big eyes squint as more tears fall down her pretty face. Her mouth is twisted in a horrible frown, sobs shaking her shoulders as she waits for me to say something. And I’m furious, but there’s one thought I can’t get rid of. Though what she did is borderline insane, I know she didn’t mean any harm to me. Her lie, just like mine, got away from her.

“I have to tell Shane,” I whisper.

Emma’s mouth widens. “About Nevaeh?”

I nod. Yes, I need to tell him about Nevaeh. I’m tired of the web of lies, of the mess this whole situation has become. I need to be honest, so that we can start out fresh and build our relationship on the one thing he asked of me. Truth.

“Wait, Heaven—” Emma starts, but my scowl halts her. She’s meddled with my life enough, and I surely won’t be taking any advice from her when it comes to honesty.

“I have to go. Right now.”

As I get up, Emma comes to stand in front of me. Though I somewhat get her motive, I also can’t look at her at this very moment.

With a deep breath, I walk out of the cafeteria, still too shaken to form a proper reaction to Emma’s betrayal. Surely, lunch is no longer an option. All I know is that I need to talk to Shane, and I need to do it now.

Chapter29

Thank You for Nothing, Nevaeh!

I’mdeep into a document that needs to be signed by the journalists when there’s a knock at my door. Shane has been in a meeting since I came back from my non-lunch, and I told Marina to send him my way the moment he was done, so my gaze flies to the entrance. But it’s not him waving at me through the glass.

I study her chocolate brown waves, her tan skin and pointy nose. Her smile’s wide, her teeth bright and her ash brown eyes warm with affection. I haven’t seen her in years, but I’d recognize her if she’d shaved her head and came up here wearing a trash bag. “Olivia?”

Her arms widen, her lips bending up as she opens the door. “Surprise!”

It takes me a second. At first, I burst with happiness, then I realize what her being here means. She’s Nevaeh, at least to Shane. If he comes here and sees her before I have a chance to talk to him—“No, no, no, no!” I whisper in a panic, grabbing her and pushing her toward the entrance. “You have to go right now! You have to leave!”

She looks back at me with a confused expression but walks nonetheless, and we make it to the hallway without meeting Shane, my heart a step from exploding. “What’s going on?”

“What do you—Shane, Olivia! Shane!”

“Wasn’t the event yesterday?” she asks, pushing a few curls off her face, and when I point at thehugesign behind me that reads “Events Department,” her eyes widen. “Oh, shit!”

She presses the elevator button, though I already have, and the next ten seconds are the absolute worst of my life. I focus on the thumps of my heart, steadying myself against the wall as my shoe taps. Am I breathing? Am I even alive at all?

When the bell dings and the elevator doors open, I draw a sigh of relief that’s immediately sucked back in. Alex is there, standing with a dumb smile on his face, his blond hair styled to one side and his shoulders rolled backward with confidence.

Oh my God, Alex is here. Why in all hell is he here?

“Hi,” he says, the plastic around the bouquet in his hands crinkling as he moves. He steps out of the elevator, and when he notices Olivia, his eyes squint. “Hello.”

Olivia scowls, then turns to me with a panicked look, which is probably only half as terrified as mine.

“What are you doing here?” I ask. My voice is paper thin as the air turns thicker and warmer. With only half of the hours a body needs to sleep behind me and the stress of today, this is the nail in the coffin. I think I’m about to pass out.

He holds the bouquet of red roses out. “I came to show you I’m different. That things will be different now.”

Rubbing my brows, I ponder what to do. If this was any other day, I’d tell him that things don’t work like this. That he can’t show up at someone’s place of work two weeks after a breakup declaring to be different. That people don’t change in such a short time, and that in any case, I’m done with our relationship. But today, I don’t have time for this. With Olivia here, I need him to go. I need both of them to go.

When he notices she hasn’t left, Alex turns to her again and studies her face. “Are you—can I help you?” he asks.

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