“I told him we can stay at the other end of the compound.” She shrugged. “He just has to make one drink appearance. Though, he keeps saying he needs to work.”
“Considering he’s the only one of us with a job that he actually has to do, I’d say he’s not lying,” I replied.
“Now, you sound like him.”
I chuckled quietly as my phone vibrated on the desk.
Do you think your friend Zayn is free on September 16th?Chloe asked.
I can ask. Why?
Lana needs a date for Ezzie and Raegan’s wedding.
I didn’t have the wedding on my calendar yet.Do you need a date for yourself?
I wondered if she smiled.
Ha-ha, she replied.Will you go with me to their wedding on the 16th?
I’ll have to check my calendar. I’m very busy.
Gavin.
I chuckled, and Persephone cleared her throat. My gaze lifted to her. “Sorry. Wife,” I said.
“I figured out that much by the stupid smile on your face,” she replied.
I think I need a picture of you in the dress you’re wearing before I say yes, I texted Chloe.
“I’ll leave you alone with your little girlfriend,” Persephone said as she stood. She made a disgusted face. “Girlfriend… that sounds lousy. I hope you plan on rectifying that soon.”
“With getting her memories back or another wedding?” I asked.
“Both. You need to renew your vows,” she said.
I stood, laying my phone face-down on the desk. “I’ll work on it,” I said, ushering her to the door. She turned into me as she paused, picked the lint off my shoulder, and stared at me with a subtle smile.
“You have her back.” Her palm hit my face in a playful slap. “Now, wake her up.”
On August 26th, I woke up in the dark to the noise of her in the shower. I knew she and Lana planned to drive up the coast, jump into the ocean in her wedding dress, and burn it. I had offered to drive them, which Lana had gladly approved since the pair planned to drink while they were out there.
Only it wasn’t the sound of her in the shower that made me stare at the door. It was how, somehow, in that space, I felt her sadness.
I didn’t ask if she was okay as I opened the door to the steaming shower. She was sitting on the bench, her head in her hands as the hot water rained on her from above. Fucking Styx. I hated seeing her like this. I knew it wasn’t her mourning the wedding. She had little attachment to it. But years of her life… feeling as though it had been wasted, she continued to dwell on it.
She looked up as I opened the glass door and stepped inside the shower with her, although she didn’t speak, and when I reached her, she stood and wrapped her arms around me. I hugged her close, closing my eyes and inhaling her sorrow, determined for her never to feel this way again.
Gods, it hurt.
“I just feel so stupid sometimes,” she whispered. “Why did I think I ever needed to settle? Why did I think I needed someone else to hide behind when I’m perfectly fine at loving myself?”
I pulled back and tilted her chin back with my knuckle. “Societal pressure, most likely,” I said, and her mouth flinched upward as she gazed at me. “It’s annoying these days, though not nearly as bad as it used to be. Back then, if you weren’t married off by fifteen, they thought you a hag.”
She snorted, shaking her head as she tightened her arms around me.
“What?” I asked.
“I thought you were going to say something all broody and sweet. Like ‘you’re not stupid,’ or ‘we only accept the love that we think we deserve,’ or I don’t know…anythingelse?”
