Page 187 of Ruin My Life
“It’s not,” she huffs. “I just like my coffee light.”
I lean forward, take a sip from her cup, and barely manage to swallow before groaning.
“That’s fuckingmilk, Brie.”
She scrunches her nose, mock-offended and adorable as hell. “Well,sorrywe can’t all enjoy bitterbean waterlike you!”
I throw my head back and bark a laugh. Deep, loud, unfiltered. She laughs too—shoulders shaking, her voice bright and golden.
We laugh until coffee sloshes over the edges of our mugs—dark on mine, pale on hers—dripping down the ceramic and onto the sheets.
I don’t care. I’ll probably have to change them again soon anyway.
It feels almost abnormally normal to sit here in my mother’s house and laugh about coffee with her.
There’s no tension in the air. No threat slithering under the floorboards. Just warmth and domestic ease—the kind I’ve rarely allowed myself to imagine. I’ve never felt more free from the usual confines of my life back in the city.
It’s not that I don’t enjoy the work I do—because I do, and I’ve earned the rewards that come with it—butthis?
This is something else entirely.
This is peace.
This is Brie, finally letting me in.
Since we came here, it’s like she’s let herself bloom—petal by petal, wall by wall. She’s softer, slower to glare, quicker to smile.
Andgod, watching every second of it happen has become the most addictive part of my day.
Her skin, once pale from too many nights spent hiding in the dark, has taken on a delicate rose flush—dusting her cheeks and nose, staining her knees and knuckles. Her subtle freckles often get lost within her blushing face, and when the light hits her hazel eyes, I swear I can see every shade of gold, green, and brown the world’s ever produced.
And her smile…
I’m not talking about that sultry smirk she uses when she’s seducing someone, or the sharp grin she tosses out with her sarcasm like a dagger.
No—I mean her real smile. Unbidden. Honest.
The one that hits me like a sucker punch and makes me want to do two things at once: tell her every terrible joke I know just to keep it growing, and then fuck her so thoroughly that she can’t stop smiling for the next week.
If I could, I’d stay here with her forever.
But I know better than to trust something this simple.
Our lives were never built for peace.
My phone buzzes on the bedside table, vibrating so hard it nearly leaps off the edge. I grab it fast, frowning when I see the blocked caller ID.
I already have a hunch at who it is.
Brie shifts like she’s about to slide off my lap, but I keep her in place with one arm around her waist as I answer.
She’s in this now. And I’m done pretending she’s not.
“Hello?”
“We need coffee creamer in the break room,” says a voice on the other end.
Brie raises an eyebrow at me.
