Page 61 of Perfect Pairing
Though she couldn’t see me, I nodded, and barely a minute later, footsteps echoed in the stairwell outside my apartment. The only other people who could get past the fingerprint scanner on my door were my sisters and parents, and Ella stepped inside after a faint beeping.
Then she was gathering me in her arms, and I was sobbing uncontrollably against her chest.
When my tears slowed and cries quieted enough that Ella could speak, she asked, “Do you want me to call in the cavalry?”
I shoved back to look at her and shouted, “No!” a bit too loudly. “Sorry. I just… I don’t need them going all big sisters on me right now.”
“But I’m your big sister too,” Ella said softly.
I rolled my eyes and moved to stand, extending a hand to help her to her feet as well. “It’s not the same and you know it.”
Ella only nodded. Since she’d been born in September and I arrived in August of the following year, we were Irish twins and had always been close growing up. I loved each of my sisters equally and for different reasons, but the thing I appreciated most about Ella—and why she’d been the one I’d called the moment my heart shattered with the door slamming shut behind Ezra—was her stillness. Despite the tattoos and pink streaks in her dark hair, she was quiet and free-spirited. She didn’t speak simply because she couldn’t stand the silence. Everything about her was intentional and carefully considered.
It was why we were all so flabbergasted that she’d started dating Alfie, who was the opposite of everything she was and stood for. My parents especially hoped it was only a phase she’d grow out of.
“What do you want to do then?” she asked.
“Don’t you have to work?”
Ella shook her head. “I have Wednesdays off.”
I quirked a brow. “Since when?”
“Since the beginning of summer,” she said with a shrug.
I lifted the hem of my shirt to my face and wiped away the tears, mopping myself up as best as I could, grateful I thought to put underwear on before Ezra left.
“I have so much work to do for the bakery,” I said, sniffing loudly to clear my nose. “I don’t have time to wallow.”
I think I was trying to convince myself more than her, and Ella simply nodded.
“I think there’s always time for wallowing.”
I looked at my sister, who came running when I’d called, who’d given up her only day off to help me work through the pain I was experiencing—pain she didn’t understand because I hadn’t yet explained.
“As badly as I want to sink into the couch and have an Anne Hathaway marathon, there’s just too much work to do downstairs. Plus, keeping busy will keep me distracted.”
Ella didn’t press, didn’t beg for more information or dig her fingers into the sore spot on my chest, right over my heart. She only moved closer and settled her hands on my shoulders.
“What can I do to help?”
God, I hated myself in that moment. I’d been so wrapped up in my own stuff, between finishing my apprenticeship, prepping for the bakery opening, and…himthat I hadn’t bothered to check in with my sisters. But here Ella was, doing whatever she could to help me—to make me feel better.
Some days, I wasn’t sure I deserved my sisters, least of all this one.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I’ve been so…”
“Busy,” she finished for me, hitching up a shoulder. “I get it.”
“It’snot an excuse.”
“It is when you’re falling in love. Ezra, right? I saw him drive past on my way here.”
“I’m not…” I choked on my words before I could finish the sentence. “I just really like—likedhim.”
Ella pursed her lips as if to sayget real, knowing full well I couldn’t turn it off that quickly. After all, she’d witnessed my emotional breakdown only minutes before.
And the truth was…I more than liked Ezra. But how was it possible to fall in love with someone after spending only a handful of real, physical, tangible moments together? Then again, I’d learned more about him over the course of our late-night phone calls than I ever had anyone else. The distance and darkness had given us a safe space to spill our secrets.
