Mia smiled like I’d said something important. “Pasta it is,” she declared. “Drax you can order.”
He groaned and theatrically threw his hands in the air. “Why me?”
Mia threw herself on his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and fluttered her lashes. “Beacuse.” She bopped him on the nose. “Whenever you call up we always get a discount because the girl who answers the phone has a crush on you.”
“Thats not true,” he whined.
“It so is,” Dix and Jett said together before making kissy faces at him.
“Fine! Mia get the menu and find out what everyone wants and I’ll order it. I suppose you’ll want me to go and collect it too?”
“Why do you ask such stupid questions man?” Jett rolled his eyes. Messed up Drax’s hair which led to them roughhousing it on the sofa until they fell on the floor and Mia whacked them on the head with the menu.
Later once I’d eaten more than I had in weeks, mainly because the girls took it upon themselves to shove a forkful of pasta in my mouth when I was distracted Mia showed me to their spare room.
It was small but thoughtfully decorated—the kind of space someone had prepared without knowing who it would hold. A neatly made bed with mismatched pillows. A dresser with onedrawer that stuck. A lamp that hummed faintly when she turned it on, casting a soft pool of light that didn’t demand anything of me.
“You can stay as long as you need,” she said. “No pressure. No timeline.”
I sat on the edge of the bed, exhaustion finally settling into my bones now that I wasn’t holding myself upright by will alone.
“What do you want to do next?” she asked gently.
I swallowed. The promise I’d made to Anthony at the forefront of my mind. “I’m going to call Nora,” I said. “Tomorrow. Schedule an appointment. I need… help untangling things. I’m starting to see I can’t keep drowning the way I have been and expecting things to change.”
She smiled through tears. “Good.”
“I want to find a job,” I continued. “Something near the water. Something real. And eventually, my own place. Not to disappear—but to learn how to stand without bleeding everywhere.”
Mia crossed the room and pulled me into a hug. I folded into her like I’d been waiting for permission.
“That sounds like healing,” she said softly. “I’m proud of you, El. You have no idea how scared I’ve been, especially when you stopped reading my messages. At least when you left them on read, I knew you were alive.”
My breath hitched, pain spiked though my chest. “I’m so, so sorry. I just…” I shook my head trying to clear my thoughts. But that was when the tears came and drained me of the last bit of energy I was clinging to.
“Get some sleep El.” She kissed my forehead then headed to the door. “After your appointment tomorrow, we'll go to the thrift store and get you some clothes.”
“Why,” I managed around a yawn.
“You can’t wear Anthony’s clothes forever can you?”
“Huh, I’d forgotten about that.”
She snorted. “It’ll all work out…” That was the last thing I heard before sleep claimed me.
Nora’s officesmelled faintly of citrus and clean paper, the same way it always did. The blinds were half open, letting in a soft winter light that didn’t glare or intrude. A small plant sat on the windowsill, stubbornly green despite the season.
I sat on the couch, feet flat on the floor like she’d taught me, hands resting on my thighs. My heart still raced, but it didn’t feel like it was trying to escape my chest anymore. It felt… contained. Loud, but survivable.
“So,” she said gently, settling into her chair and crossing one leg over the other. Clipboard resting loosely in her lap. “Where would you like to start today?”
I stared at the rug for a long moment, following the pattern with my eyes until my breathing slowed enough to trust my voice.
“With the part where I confuse care with danger.”
She didn’t smile. Didn’t rush to reassure me. “Okay,” she said simply. “Tell me about that.”
I swallowed. “I think… growing up, love always came with a cost. Or a condition. Or silence. My dad loved my mom like she was the sun. And I was just—” I shrugged helplessly. “Something that came with her.”
