Page 24 of Deliah
He nodded. “Cops have been sniffing around the apartment. It’s just till I can shift it. A couple of days, max.”
I stared at him. I’d always known he sold a bit. We’d smoked together plenty—lazy joints and tangled limbs under winter blankets. But this? This wasn’t that. “Are you fucking joking, Jay?” I said, cautious.
“Stop stressing,” he said quickly, brushing a hand down my arm. “It’s nothing. Just a bit of green. I swear, Deliah. If anything ever happened, I’d take the fall. I’d never drag you into shit. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
I hesitated. I should have said no. But love has a way of making your gut feel like the enemy. So I nodded. “Okay. But just for a few days.”
He kissed me again, slow and sweet, and whispered, “You’re the best, baby. I love you.”
And I believed him. Like a fucking idiot—I believed him.
He left the next morning with a grin and a promise. “Text you later, yeah?”
I nodded, watched him disappear down the street, and shut the door behind him with a strange tightness in my chest. Something uneasy. Off. But I told myself,Maybe this time will be different. Maybe love really is enough.
The next day, he texted me again.
Jay:Baby, I’ll come over after work, love you.
Me:Okay, love you.
And there he was again, same warmth, same charm. We ordered takeaway, laughed like old times, but then he left again. And this time? Nothing. No good morning text. No voice note telling me he missed me. No “Babe, I’m busy, but I’m thinking of you.” Just… silence for days.And a stash of weed in the back of my wardrobe, wrapped in a black hoodie like it wasn’t a fucking problem waiting to happen.
I told Cherry everything. She was sitting on the bed, legs crossed, tying her platform heels when I finally blurted it out. “Jay’s been back.”
She paused mid-lace. “You’re joking.”
“Nope. He’s been over a couple of times.”
She blinked. “Please tell me you didn’t fuck him.”
I bit my lip.
“Deliah…”
“I know.”
She threw the shoe on the floor and stared at me like I’d grown another head.
“How could you fucking go back to him?”
I didn’t even try to defend it.
“I don’t know,” I said, voice cracking. “I love him. Don’t I?”
Cherry sighed. She stood, walked over, and wrapped her arms around me. “You’ll only ever do what you want to do, babe,” she said quietly. “I can’t stop you. No one can. But just know—however this goes, I’ll be here.”
I hugged her tighter than I meant to. And for the first time in days, I cried. Really cried. Because I knew she was right. And I also knew—I was in deeper than I ever meant to be.
Chapter 12 –
Danger in White
Afew more days slipped by. Still no sign of Jay. Just the odd text—short, lazy ones like “Busy today x” or “Miss you, babe.” Nothing with weight. Nothing that felt real. Just enough to keep me hanging on like a mug. And I hated how easily I clung to it, even when everything in my chest told me something was off. I could feel it in my bones—he was pulling away again. It was the same old story. Charm me. Fuck me. Make me feel like I was the only girl in the world for about five minutes... then vanished. I wasn’t stupid. Deep down, I knew he’d done it again—got me hooked, got his fix, then dipped. He’d trapped me in this weird halfway place, like a backup plan in a bikini. I wasn’t his girlfriend. I was storage. And then, there was that thought. The one I kept trying to shake off but couldn’t quite silence. The stash. Was that why he’d really come back to me?So he could stash his weed somewhere safe while he ran around playing king of the island?
I felt sick even thinking it. I was just a convenient little hiding place. Maybe I was overthinking it again. I always did when he went quiet, convinced myself there was some darker reason. Maybe he really was just busy, and I really was the only girl he missed. I didn’t know what was worse, believing he’d used me or believing he hadn’t and still didn’t care enough to show up. Either way, the silence was loud. And I was starting to realise just how lonely it felt to be someone’s “maybe.”
But Cherry was there, like she always was, thank god. We were sitting on the balcony, legs tucked under us, wine in hand, watching the street below as the sun dipped low and the city lit up.
