She flops down on the couch beside me with a sharp exhale. “I’m sorry.” I stare at her, unflinching. Her words circle around me, seeking a soft place to land but finding nothing but hard ridges. “I just figured if this is the end of you and me then you should know how sorry I am. For everything. I never meant to fall in love with Arnold. I hated myself for falling for the one guy I shouldn’t have, and I just kept expecting you to hate me for it too, so I wanted to hate you first. I wasted so much time and I’m sorry.”
I’m not sure what she expects from me after this declaration. I can’t tell her it’s okay because it’s not. I can’t tell her I forgive her because I don’t, at least not yet. All of this animosity could’ve been avoided if she had just talked to me.
Sitting here looking at this woman who I love with my whole heart, I see a glimpse of the girl I used to call my best friend. I hope she finds her way back to that girl one day, but I can’t be present while she searches for her.
“Goodbye, Ri.”
Chapter Fourteen
Rome
The moment we step into the hotel, I stuff my hands in my pockets. My gaze is fixated on Arnold as I take measured steps
toward him. His eyes widen at my approach and he takes calculated steps backward, his hands lifted in front of him.
“Rome, look. I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t know about you and Janelle.”
“So that gives you a right to touch her?”
“No. I know I fucked up. You don’t have to tell me.”
Rage constricts all the air in my lungs as I picture Arnold cornering Janelle. I picture him invading her space so aggressively that she had to slap him to break free. My steps become heavy as the image of him allowing his fiancée to disparage her own sister in front of us like he was an innocent bystander plays on a loop in my mind.
“Then why did you do it? Coming between sisters is fucked up, Arnold,” Christian reprimands. Arnold backs himself against a wall, the rest of us forming a semicircle around him.
“Coming between sisters again, you mean,” Jalen adds.
“I know, I know,” he laments.
“Then why?”
“I wanted her to tell Ri!” he shouts, slamming his fist into his palm and shaking his head. “I wanted her to tell Ri so that Ri would break off the engagement and I wouldn’t have to.”
In the blink of an eye, I have the front of Arnold’s shirt balled up in my fists, his feet an inch off the ground. The guys grab my arms, trying to separate us, but I make no moves to hit him. I just want him to hear me.
“Janelle is not yours.”
“I know.”
“She is not a toy that you can use as a pawn in your fucked-up relationship.”
“I know.”
“If you want to end your engagement, be a man and do it yourself.”
“That’s the thing.”He coughs from the pressure I have against his neck. I loosen it enough to let him breathe, but not enough that he can break free. “I don’t wanna end my engagement. I love Amerie, I really do. I just panicked, okay? Things have been so fucked up lately with the stuff she has going on, and it was just a lot to deal with. I don’t want out.”
I tilt my head, not recognizing the man in front of me. This wedding has brought out the worst in both of them. “I don’t really give a fuck what you two have going on. Janelle is a human being. That’s a fact that you, Amerie, and their damn mother seem to keep forgetting, and if I have to remove you all from her life myself to give her some semblance of peace, I will.”
“That would kill Ri.” I harden my glare at him. “I get it, I do. I’m sorry.”
“That‘sorry’don’t mean shit to me. Save that for Janelle and your wife.” I release him from my grip, and he wobbles slightly on his ankle.
Arnold and I will be fine. Despite the way he’s acted on this trip, I know my friend. He wants to appear perfect to the world, but he’s not. He’s just a man who makes mistakes and eventually he gets them right. Theonly thing he needs to do to make it right with me is make it right with Janelle. I brush my hands down the front of my shirt and head in the direction of my room.
“This is going in my toast, too!” Jalen yells after me. I smile, throwing up a middle finger as I go.
A little while later, Janelle finally shows up at her door. Her face looks devoid of any emotions until she sees me sitting in front of her door and I’m rewarded with a colorful smile.
