“How long have you been here?” I ask.
“Five days.” She holds out her right hand to me. “They call me Bex.”
“Grave.” I shake her hand, wondering if that’s a fake name.
She nods quickly. “I would say it’s nice to meet you, but not much is nice about this hellhole.”
I laugh. “It could be worse.” Could be dead.
She snorts. “Speak for yourself.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t check yourself in?”
She shakes her head and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “My father is getting married to his fifth wife in three months. Walked in on me fucking my soon-to-be stepbrother on his desk. Next thing I knew, he was dragging my ass out of bed and had a car deliver me here. This is my home for the next five weeks.”
I nod, dropping my head. “There’s nothing wrong with admitting you need help with addiction. Drugs can take over your life.”
I haven’t been this sober in this amount of consecutive days in I don’t know how long. The first five days here, I felt like shit. My body was learning to live without them. I didn’t do them when I was with April, but the temptation was still there. I just chose not to.
Now that I know I can’t, my body craved it. Or maybe that was just my mind wanting to bury my feelings and the heartache. I’ve always known I had a problem, but I never wanted to admit it.
“I wish my problem was drugs.” She brings the cigarette to her lips.
I frown. “You’re in rehab, but don’t have an addiction?”
She shrugs. “They say I’m a sex addict.” Turning her head, she winks at me while biting her bottom lip. “I say I just like cock.” Her eyes drop to my jeans.
I laugh. “Who doesn’t enjoy sex?”
“Right?” She throws her head back and laughs. “See, someone gets it.”
I nod. “Yeah, I do.”
“Grave?”
We both turn around to see Jess walking toward us. She frowns at Bex smoking a cigarette but doesn’t voice her opinion about it. “You have a phone call,” she tells me.
I walk away from the railing as Bex calls out, “See you around.”
APRIL
I stand insidethe wedding chapel, looking over the flower arrangements that the girls and I put together. It took six weeks of nonstop work, but it looks amazing, if I do say so myself.
The wedding is tomorrow. We’ve been here for the past three hours for the rehearsal, and it couldn’t have gone any better. I should be ecstatic, but a part of me is still so sad. Grave has been gone for over a month now. I have had no kind of interaction with him whatsoever, and that’s been the hardest part. No phone calls, no visits, not even a letter.
I get all my updates about him through Titan, but he keeps it short. He visits him once a week with multiple phone calls. I know Cross and Bones also have contact with him, but I’m not close with either of them to ask what they know.
Titan walks up to me, and I give him a fake smile. He doesn’t buy it, but at least he pretends he does. “The flowers look amazing. Thank you.”
“Thank you, but it was a group effort.” Titan was adamant that I do the wedding, but my little flower shop wasn’t equipped to handle such a big order. The girls worked tirelessly at Roses, day and night, helping me out. When we ran out of space, we moved to Emilee and his house.
“I spoke to Grave yesterday.”
My heart races at the mention of his name. “Is he okay?” I ask. That’s my greatest fear, that he’s in pain. I’ve seen documentaries that show someone going through withdrawals and how excruciating it can be.
He nods. “He gets to be here tomorrow for the wedding.”
My eyes widen. “What? He’s getting out?” I thought he was doing a six-week program.
