Page 84 of There's No Us Without You
“For you, of course. Need it now? I can get my girl to drop it at the house. I’m sure Will would love that,” he says, laughing.
Jesus Christ, is this guy serious? Will would indeed skin me alive if his ex-girlfriend showed up on our front doorstep with a bag of drugs for me.
“No, not here. I’ll come to you.” I glance back at the house again, making sure I’m still alone.
I’m making the right decision—I just hope if it blows up in my face, everyone that matters realises I was doing it for them.
“Suit yourself,” Brady says, now sounding like he wants to be doing anything other than talking to me. “See you soon.”
“Thanks, man.” I hang up and take a deep breath.
Now for the worst part—lying to Will.
Again.
When I open the front door, I pop my head around it first just to make sure I’m in the clear.
But my hope of an easy escape evaporates when I find Will in the kitchen, bent over the dishwasher, stacking dirty plates into the bottom drawer. He glances up, and pauses, a plate in his hand. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah... listen,” I say, drumming my fingers on the door. “I just need to pop to the late-night pharmacy. Need anything?”
He frowns, and stands up straight, placing the plate back on the bench. “Pharmacy? What for?”
“Jesus Christ. What are you, my father?” I press my fingertips into my eyes. “Look, I’m sorry. It’s just been a long few days and I have a headache.”
Will blinks a few times, rubbing an eyebrow. “If you need to talk, I’m here. You know that, right?” Taking a hesitant stepforward, he visibly swallows. “If you’re in some sort of trouble, I’ll help you. I don’t care what it is.”
Please don’t make me do this.
Tears sting my eyes, so I blink back my emotions, and with a tight smile, I nod. “It’s all good. I’ll see you later.” I pull the door closed behind me and press my back into it to stare up at the cloudless night sky.
What would it feel like to float into the stars, weightless and free?
I’ve stepped into an alternate universe because in the span of five hours, a tsunami has swallowed my life, and I’m damn near drowning.
TWENTY-FOUR
Eden
All the lightsare off when I get home from work that night, so I drop my bag at the door and fumble around on the wall for the light switch.
After making myself a ham, cheese, and tomato toasted sandwich, I sit at the island bench, scrolling through my phone, while mindlessly shoving the food into my mouth.
It’s eerily quiet without the boys here—Will is at work, and Emerson’s out for dinner with his team for some bonding time.
When he mentioned this morning what his plans were, I smiled like everything was fine and told him to have a good time.
My worst nightmare is the one where he finds out about my involvement in the bet and hates me forever.
To be honest, I don’t know if losing the restaurant or Emerson would be more painful at this point. I never knew I could fall for another person—or two, in my case—so fast after breaking up with Kent.
Damn it. I need to take my mind off what could or couldn’t happen, so I type out a message to Stella.
Me: Keen for a drink at The Beer Bunker?
Although we just spent an eight-hour shift together—talking all things Will and Emerson only to have Stella tell me to just go with it because it’s not every day you get not only one, but two men you’re falling for—I need to get out of the house.
I just wish we’d become this close before I started dating Kent. Maybe she could have talked some sense into me before I saidyes.
