Page 31 of Unless It's You
“Well, shit. Can I help?”
“No, no, please. I shouldn’t have said anything. Sorry. Let’s nottalk about it anymore.” Panic bubbles up inside me. She’s literally the first person I’ve said a word to about the flat.
“Okay,” she says after staring at me for a beat. Stella makes a zipping motion on her lips.
“But... your great-aunt choseyou. You and your sisters. That’s why I don’t want you to cheat. You’ll regret it.”
Stella moans, running a hand through her hair. “I got an email back from the lawyer today. He didnotlike my suggestions for the way I want to complete the bucket list.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“I mean, Aunt Evelyn was a monster.” She rolls her eyes but has a smile on her face.
I chuckle. “I think I would’ve enjoyed this great-aunt of yours. I’d like to have met her. Have a coffee, perhaps pick her brain about life.”
Stella’s cheeks flush. That was probably a comment that should have stayed in my head. She’s staring at my face, examining, like she’s trying to figure me out.
“I have a meeting in a few minutes. I gotta run back up.” Stella’s hands twitch by her sides.
I glance down at them. I miss her touch. I wish her fingers were still on my arm or wrapped around my waist.
“Right. See you around.” I slowly turn to walk away from Stella Hart, but she calls me back.
“Hey, Ethan?”
I pause and wait intently.
“So sorry about your mom.”
There’s a softness and sincerity in her eyes that tightens my throat. I open my mouth to respond, but she disappears back into the building, leaving me on the street by myself, in a bustling crowd of midday Londoners.
13
STELLA
BUCKET LIST DAY 5
Idon’t head to the elevators to get to my meeting, but instead press my back against the cold marble wall of the lobby, my head turned to the door, mostly out of sight of Ethan. I watch him. He’s frozen like one of the statues in Regent’s Park. A rugby god, maybe, with his form-fitting t-shirt with the London Stingers club logo and jeans that hug his thick thighs. Something stirs inside me. Warm, like the glowing embers of a fire that could burst into flames if someone doesn’t throw sand on top.
Ethan’s confession about his mom passing away and how she treated him growing up clarifies so much about the way he’s acted toward me. That vulnerability he showed just now, telling me about the flat he can’t bring himself to deal with... it was like he was telling me something he’s never told another soul.
“Oh, shit.” I squint my eyes shut. I wish I could help. Don’t I owe it to him? After me going on about missing my great-aunt, when he’s the one missing hismother?
And I’ve been insisting on cheating on the list. The list my beloved great-aunt took the time to write, just for me. My stomachchurns. How utterly insensitive. Iamlucky, just like Ethan told me last night.
Evelyn loved me so much.
Even Stuffy Richard thinks I’m cheating. My eyes spring open and I pull my phone out of my back pocket, clicking on the email I skimmed earlier this morning.
To:Stella Hart
From:Richard Ramsey
Date:12 July 2024
Subject:Re: Stella Hart Bucket List Update for Approval
Dear Stella,
