Lottie.I sealed the name in my memory. She seemed important to Shiloh with how protective she was.
Lottie turned to face Shiloh, holding her arms as she looked in her eyes. “Em?”
“I’m serious,” Shiloh nodded with a smile. “He’s harmless and we’re good here.”
Lottie flicked her eyes over me warily, clearly unconvinced.
“Do you know him?” She asked skeptically.
“Um, yeah,” Shiloh replied.
Lottie pressed her lips into a tight line. “Well, we’re waiting for you to get the meeting started. Are you guys almost done here?”
“Yeah, I was just about to head out,” I said with a short wave. “I’ll talk to you later, Emory. Nice meeting you, Lottie.”
Walking back to my car it all hit me. The exhaustion. The emotional fatigue.
I could hear Jae telling me I was stupid for holding onto hope that Shiloh was going to change her mind about us. He’d say it was reckless getting involved with her knowing the amount of baggage that Shiloh carried.
But I’d rather take a bath in boiling oil than walk away from Shiloh when she needed me. Or maybe I needed her too.
That’s what it meant to love someone, wasn’t it? To have someone to weather the storm with, someone to remind you that it wouldn’t always be this hard, someone to be the light in the middle of your darkest days and nights.
I wanted to be that someone for Shiloh.
I wanted us to be that for each other.
I’d be lying to myself if I said I didn’t still love her.
As crazy as it sounded, there was an inexplicable connection between Shiloh and I and it wasn’t a coincidence that are paths crossed again. I wasn’t going to waste this second chance God had granted us.
June 28, Sunday
Emory
Lottie tiptoed to the door peering round the corner for several seconds before spinning on her heel and pinning me with her blue eyes.
“The hell, Emory? You said you didn’t know him?”
My mouth parted, my brain slowly trying to come up with an explanation.
“I…he’s my…my ex,” I stumbled.
She shook her head at me, crossing her arms over her chest.Great now both people I care about are mad at me.“I watched the footage. That wasn’t…normal, Em. That man set you off the other day and you’ve been in a low spot ever since. I’m not trying to call you out, I know it’s not your fault when your mental health takes a dive. But,clearly, it was his. You should stay away from him.”
I tried not to grind my teeth at the reminder of just how low I was. My fucking therapist had left me four voicemails to call her back. If Lottie thought Enoch was unstable, I didn’t know what she’d label me if she knew how many times a day I was self-harming to purge the demons.
I wasn’t about to find out, so I tried to change the topic.
“Aren’t we late for a meeting?”
Lottie blinked, as if she’d completely forgotten.
“Yeah, right. Let’s go.”
I followed closely behind her, and she abruptly stopped, causing me to stumble into her back.
“Shit,” I mumbled, righting myself as she spun around to face me.
