Page 66 of My Twin Sister's Extremely Famous and Incredibly Hot Neighbor

“Oh, sweetie. It will be okay.” She puts an arm around me.

“I don’t know how. He thinks we’re horrible.”

“Come on. Let’s go in the living room and sit. You need to calm down.”

Jera convinces me to have a cup of tea while we sit on her comfy couch. I curl my legs under me, and Squint jumps on my lap. I sip the tea and try to calm down, but the hole in my chest won’t let me feel better.

“I know you think you’re in love,” Jera says sitting next to me. “But really, you’ll see clearly when you get home and can spend some time away from him. He’s handsome, I’ll give you that. Anyone would be charmed by him.”

“It was more than that,” I say, my heart in my throat. I’m so tired of crying, but the tears run down my cheeks anyway.

Jera shakes her head and changes tactics. “If he really loves you, he’ll forgive you.”

I stare at her chandelier and contemplate what she said. Dustin and I had something going, but maybe he didn’t feel the same toward me. “What if he doesn’t love me?” I ask, my voice small.

“Then find someone who does.” She pats my knee. “If he doesn’t love you, he’s not the right one for you.”

Her logic makes sense, but there’s something she’s missing, and I can’t quite put it into words. What Dustin and I had was magic. He was everything I needed, right when I needed it.

I know I lied to him too many times to count, but I wonder if he’ll ever know the truth, that I did really fall in love with him. He completed me. Pain shoots through me and I let another tear fall.

Dustin was so kind to me. He grounded me. He was my knight in shining armor. He literally saved me.

I swirl my tea and stare at the tea bag. I don’t know how I’m going to go home. Even now I miss him so much it aches.

CHAPTER36

Six months later.

I clear my throat as my therapist waits for me to answer her question. It’s been three weeks since my last session, and so much has happened. “I’m doing good.”

“How’s the medicine? Do you think the new dose is helping more with your anxiety?”

I nod. “Yes.”

“How have things been going with your artwork? Did you sell any when you had your show?”

I take in a deep breath as excitement rushes through me. “I sold them all.”

“You did? That’s amazing. Tell me about it.”

“I was nervous for the opening night party, but the gallery owner promised she’d keep it low-key. She really came through. It was fine. And the gallery was amazing to work with. They told me I could do another show any time.” I sit back in my chair, pleased with myself for getting up the nerve to even try it. Dustin did that for me. He gave me the confidence to push beyond my fears.

“How was your vacation with your sister?” She brushes her hair behind her ear and looks up from her clipboard.

I smile. “It was good. We got to talk. I mean, really talk. We haven’t done that in a long time.”

“That’s good.” She pushes her glasses up her nose. “Have you told her what you told me? About your father?”

“Yes,” I say quietly. “We did talk about my father.”

In talking with my therapist, I found out I had a lot of repressed anger toward him. I worked through a lot of it with her, but one of the assignments she gave me was to talk to my sister about it. It did help, and I found out that Jera was actually seeing a therapist about it as well. I hadn’t known that.

“Was it good to talk it out with her?”

I nod and wave my phone. “I even shared his photo with her. She cried when she saw I had it. She thought all of the old photos were destroyed. We know what he did was wrong, and neither one of us are ready to have him back in our lives, but I think we’re both to the point where we accept what happened and can move on.”

“Good. Did you talk about Dustin?”

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