I glared at her. “Yes.”
She laughed softly and leaned forward to steal one of the pastries. “Talk.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Too bad. I know that’s why you’re here and not where I left your car.”
I pulled the blanket over my head like a sullen teenager. “He picked me,” I said, my voice muffled. “He could’ve had everything. All the money, all the power, all his legacy shit, and yet he still pickedme.”
Thalia didn’t respond right away. She let the silence do the heavy lifting. That’s how I knew she was my only real friend—she wasn’t afraid to let things breathe.
“I heard what he said to his father,” she said eventually. “He chose you before you even knew it. The way he looked at you, Sin... like you hung the damn moon. And when you left, he looked like a kicked puppy.”
I peeked out from under the blanket like a gremlin. “Gross.”
“Romantic.”
“Disgusting.”
Thalia rolled her eyes. “You’re such a brat.”
“Your brat,” I muttered, nudging her with my foot.
“Always.” Her smile softened. “But Sin… this is your chance. Real happiness. Not the performative, drug-fueled chaos we used to chase just to feel something. This—he—is different.”
I stared up at the ceiling. “I know. That’s the problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, T.” The words tumbled from me before I could stop them. “I know how to flirt. I know how to fuck. I know how to ruin people with a look. But love? Relationships? That’s like... trying to speak a language no one ever taught me.”
“Maybe you don’t need to speak it perfectly,” she said. “Maybe it’s enough to try? Not to be one to state the obvious, but I think you’re both in the same boat here.”
My throat burned. “What if I fuck it up?”
“You will. Eventually. We all do. But love isn’t about getting it perfect. Love is about showing up after the storm and saying, ‘I’m still here’.”
I didn’t say anything for a long time. I just stared at the window and let her words sink in. She was right. She always was. I just didn’t want to admit how scared I was. Because, for the first time in my entire life, I had something worth losing.
“You really think I can do this?” I asked, quieter now.
Thalia turned to face me fully. “I think if you don’t, you’ll regret it every single day. And you’ll never forgive yourself for walking away from something good. Especially when he told the world who he really was. He didn’t do that for just anyone. Did he?” Her eyes bored into me like they were drilling in my head. “No, he did it for you.”
I blinked back the sudden rush of emotion, eyes stinging. “I hate when you’re right.”
She smirked. “No you don’t. You love that someone knows you well enough to see past the bratty attitude.”
I scoffed and sat up, shoving the blanket off me. “Okay. So let’s say I do this. How? Where the fuck do I start?”
Thalia grinned. “With one honest sentence.”
I gave her a side-eye. “That’s vague and useless.”
She leaned in, brushing imaginary lint off my shirt. “Then let me be more specific. Next time you see him, say what you’re scared of. Tell him you don’t know what you’re doing. Tell him you want to try anyway.”
I exhaled hard, then ran my hands through my hair. “And what if he laughs?”
“He won’t.” Thalia’s voice was firm.
