Page 28 of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

‘It’s a story I don’t want to get into right now, because… humiliation.’

‘Dax is the nicest guy,’ Summer says, interrupting the tension of Mercy silently looking for an explanation to all this. ‘I’m sure he won’t mind you staying a little longer.’

I look to River. He shrugs. ‘Can’t hurt to talk to him.’

‘Sure, I’ll talk to him. I can move into a hotel for a while if nothing else.’

I can’t depend on my friends and family forever. I’m an adult. And sometimes adults have to figure their crap out on their own. Especially when they’ve left everyone behind for so long.

7

DAX

Later That Night…

What in the hell is that? I open the glass shower door to figure out what I’m hearing. The walls in this building are so thin I’ve followed conversations between the neighbors downstairs for months. It’s not going well for them.

The shrieking continues, so I turn off the water and hop out, wrapping a towel around my waist before throwing open the bathroom door.

‘Hollyn?’ I see only her back as I walk out. I thought she was going to her parents’ house after Mercy’s show tonight?

‘Dax!’ Sydney, a woman I have a friends-with-benefits situation with, is backed against the front door, holding a handful of long stem roses I had in a bucket of water, swinging them like a sword in Hollyn’s direction.

‘This nutjob woman came after me with a lightsaber!’ Sydney yells. ‘Who even has a lightsaber?’

That’d be River. He owns many. I glance at Hollyn, who’s now looking between Sydney, and me, confused, as she holds her hostage with a blue lit-up lightsaber, now making fight noises with each swing.

‘I may have more than a few trust issues, but I’mnota nutjob,’ Hollyn says to Sydney defensively, swinging again. ‘I’m just a woman who doesn’t want to be murdered!’

For a second, the scene in front of me is so confusing all I can do is listen as I catch up.

‘You thought atoywould keep you from being murdered?’ Sydney hollers back, jumping onto my sectional, swinging the roses at Hollyn, petals flying across the room, hitting me in the chest.

‘A toy sword versus flowers; yeah, I’m good,’ Hols says.

I brush petals from my shoulder, starting to laugh as Hollyn looks my way.

‘Wait,’ she says. ‘Youknowher?’

I nod, grabbing the lightsaber lifted over her head. It blasts sounds of a battle from its internal speaker as I lob it onto the couch, pointing at the flowers Sydney is holding. She tosses them onto the ottoman, stepping off my couch as she does.

‘I invited her here, Hols. This is Sydney.’ I motion to Syd. ‘Syd, this is River’s sister Hollyn. She just got back to town.’

The two women look somewhat deflated and although they don’t exactly hug, they each acknowledge the other’s presence without weapons.

‘What are you doing here?’ I ask Hollyn. ‘River said you were staying with your parents starting tonight.’

Her face drops. Oh, no. Don’t start crying again.

‘Seems I’ve caused too much damage to stay there.’

They saidno? Wow. I guess I didn’t realize things were that bad between them. That had to hurt in her current condition.

‘I was going to talk to you about staying here a while longer, but you were in the bathroom when I got here, and after meeting your weirdo neighbor wearing a robe not closed enough’ – she motions towards Roger’s apartment – ‘I got scared when I heard someone struggle with the lock. That guy invited me in for a cup of jungle juice. What even is that? Poison?’

‘Never drink anything Roger gives you,’ I warn her.

‘Clearly, this is a bad time,’ Sydney cuts in.

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