Page 29 of The Best Kind of Forever
I start my tireless journey to carve a decent-sized dent in the carton as Lila’s eyes remain glued to my every movement. My stomach clenches painfully since this is the first thing I’ve eaten all day, and I’ll probably regret it in the morning, but that’s not enough incentive to stop me.
“Do you want some?” I mumble through a mouthful of cream and cookie and chocolate.
Lila laughs. “That’s okay, love. I got it for you.”
“You bought it for me?”
“You were running out.”
Oh, God. She’s going to make me cry. I can’t stand it when people do nice things for me. I think it’s probably because I’ve convinced myself that I don’t deserve it—you know, a good ol’ trauma response from failing my brother.
I propel myself into Lila with the force of a bull, bringing her into a rib-crushing, breath-squeezing kind of hug. She lurches back a bit, but once I feel her arms wrap around me, my worries dissipate just a little. “Thank you. For taking care of me.”
“I willalwaystake care of you, Aer-Bear. My best friend deserves to be happy, to fall in love, to live a fulfilled life. Don’t rob yourself of that. It’s okay tofeel. Your heart is my favorite part of you. I don’t want to see it broken, but I don’t also want to see it atrophy from disuse. Take that leap of faith.”
A cold panic shimmies up my spine. She’s right. You know how when you’re drowning—or, I hope you don’t know—you try your hardest not to swallow any water? Because the more water you swallow, the harder it is to breathe. Did you also know that you have to let a little water in to allow yourself to swim back up to the surface?
I think that’s what I have to do—endure a moment of pain in return for a lifetime of pleasure. Besides, there’s no guarantee I’ll find myself drowning. To drown, I have to lose control in the water. But there are things that help you stay afloat to prevent that from ever happening. Things like life jackets. Maybe Hayes is my life jacket.
Without a word, I scramble for my phone, my thumbs typing furiously away at the keyboard.
Lila looks concerned, and maybe a tad bit frightened. “What are you doing?”
Once I hit that send button, my first smile of the week emerges. “I’m taking a leap.”
14
THE BEGINNING OF A BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIP
HAYES
Once I got that text from Aeris, I drove like a speed demon over to her place. I ran a stop sign and almost flattened a kid on his bike, but I had to see her. Her text was vague.
I kill the engine with a twist of my key, hearing it scantly sputter to a stop. I unbuckle my seatbelt, but I don’t open my door.
She’s just a girl.
She understands what I’ve been through.
You’ll find another.
I want her.
With a final groan, I make my way to her doorstep, rapping my knuckles against the off-white partition. I feel like I’m gonna puke.
Is she going to break things off? Did I somehow find a way to screw up another good thing in my life? Maybe the date was too much for her. Maybe things were moving too fast.
When she doesn’t open the door right away, I knock continuously until a meow sounds from the other side, then I’m hit with a pall of warm air.
There, standing in front of me, is a sight that I’ll never tire of seeing. Aeris, at that five-foot-one height of hers, looking up at me like I hold all the answers to the world. This time, though, she has her hair in a messy bun and a tiny, cotton pajama set on.
Okay, I don’t know why I expected her to sleep in a head-to-toe onesie like some kind of moth in a cocoon, but this is a new development.
I’m enraptured by the way her long lashes flutter against her brow ridge, how upon closer inspection, I can make out a freckle on her collarbone. The shorts are, um, short. So short that I can’t help but ogle at her creamy thighs. And Jesus, the neckline of her top isn’t leaving much to my imagination. Her large tits pillow over her bra cups, ones that Idistinctlyremember looking good in that corset the first night I met her.
I shake my head, swallowing the boulder in my throat. “Are you okay?”
There’s a red rim around her puffy eyes, and her cheeks look flushed.
