“He has rentals. I assume they have more than one bedroom.” May looks to Nico for confirmation.
“That’s not gonna work, May,” Nico attempts carefully, the tips of his ears even redder than before.
“You can help pay for gas, Annie. It’ll be less than the three thousand you would spend on a train ticket.”
“Honestly, I’d rather spend three million dollars than be trapped in a car with Joe Pesci for a week,” I mutter. My heart is pounding in my ears. I’m slowly devolving into panic.
Nico hears me. “Fuck off with that shit, Annie, and get off my dick about my accent,” he says, frustration evident despite his attempts to wrangle said accent into submission. “Honestly, there’s no way I’m takingorpaying for this miserable fuckin’ hurricane of serious issues who causes fuckin’ problems for everyone around her?—”
“Hey,” May cuts in, a hair more forcefully.
I, on the other hand, am forced into a shocked silence. Of all the things that have come out of Nico’s mouth thus far, this is the only thing that manages to creep through my defenses and slice directly into my chest. I feel my ribcage collapsing around the wound.Flightis now activated.
“Don’t talk about my sister that way,” May warns. She says this quietly and calmly, but there is an undercurrent of a rarely seen danger and intensity.
Nico manages to look contrite. He scrubs his face with both hands, then drops them. “I gotta go to the bathroom,” he mumbles, then gets up and storms away.
I swallow the lump in my throat. Shove it down with all the other bad feelings that came up with it.
May isn’t looking at Nico; she’s looking at me. “I’m sorry,” May whispers. “I thought I was being helpful, and that?—”
“What a terrible idea, May,” Tom cuts in.
May recoils slightly, then shrinks even more.
“Excuseyou?” I growl. Did my teeth just get sharper? I run my tongue along the canines.
“—With her?” he continues. “We’re going to be reading our vows while she leaps into the seats and pummels Nico with a bouquet?—”
“Not if I stuff it down your throat first,” I spit at him.
“—then sets the entire hotel on fire.”
“With you in it, hopefully,” I shoot back.
“—that’s a ridiculously stupid plan, May?—”
I turn back to May, hoping?—
I freeze.
The look on her face hits me like a gut punch. That tight, apologetic twist of her mouth, the nervous knot in her brow, the way she tries to make herself smaller. That’s theexactlook from her engagement party, the look I’ve spent my whole life trying to protect her from. Not sadness, exactly. Not even fear. Just… that she’s not doing the right thing. That she might be wrong, or not enough. That she might hurt someone.
She doesn’t deserve to carry that. And for as long as I live, she willnevercarry that.
“May, you’re right,” I grind out.
So I do it again—I shoulder it before she can feel the weight.
“It’s the perfect solution to the problem.” My voice comes out cool and smooth. A little smile, practiced and polite, wraps around the words like ribbon around broken glass.
Tom’s lip curls.
“Annie—” May starts.
My jaw clenches, eyes flicking between May’s face and Nico’s retreating back.
“Fuck you, Tom. May isalwaysright,” I grit.
