I give her a solemn nod.
“And you don’t think he would let you live with me before you get married?”
“Highly doubtful,” I answer honestly.
“And when are you to be married?”
“When I turn twenty-three.”
She looks flabbergasted. “But…that’ssoon, Savina.”
“I know,” I say miserably before putting my face in my hands.
She stands and paces around our table for a few minutes. “I’m still processing all of this. I can’t believe you never told me, Savina,” she stresses.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her sincerely. Out of all the people in my life who I wanted to tell, she was the number one person on my list. “I thought maybe somehow I could get out of the contract or thatsomething would change…or maybe that it would just magically go away,” I say before dropping my hands and sighing loudly. “No such luck.”
Suddenly, Darby’s expression changes, brightening as if the best idea she’s ever had has just hit her. “We could kill Dimitri! Bury him on that plot of land in the mountains that my parents left me,” she whispers conspiratorially. “I’ve watched enough true crime shows. I know we could get away with it.”
She’s so serious right now that I do believe she could get away with murder, but I hold my hand up to stop her. “I’m not going to commit murder to get out of a marriage contract, Darby.”
She stops pacing and stares at me. “Is it because deep down maybe you don’t hate him?” she asks, waggling her dark brows.
“No. I definitely hate him.”
She instantly deflates. “Oh. I thought maybe this was some enemies to lovers kind of shit.”
And we’re back to her books.
Grumbling, I tell her, “I haven’t seen Dimitri since high school. I’m sure he hasn’t changedthatmuch. And I’m almost positive his attitude and the way he drives me up the wall hasn’t changed at all.”
“You two do have a pretty crazy history,” she remarks.
Her words cause my mind to drift into the past. Dimitri and I have been through a lot in such a short amount of time. Even when I was halfway across the country, I thought about him a lot even if I didn’t want to. Since I’ve been back home, it feels like I think about him twice as much, and it’s infuriating, to say the least.
“So, how’s the bar?” I ask, desperate to change the subject.
Darby’s bar has been thriving, and I couldn’t be happier for her. It’s definitely one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to. It’s dark, gothic and chic — just like Darby. Even now as she sits across from me with her long, glossy, black hair with a teal balayage, dark smoky makeup and black lipstick covering her full, pouty lips, she looks like she just stepped out of aGothic Beautymagazine.
“It’s going great. Business is booming,” Darby says proudlywith a big grin. “The best part is I didn’t need my stepbrother’s help, and he has no stake in the bar, so I don’t have to worry about him fucking everything up with his gambling issues.”
Even though she hasn’t told me much about her stepbrother, I do know that he would gamble away his own organs for money, if he could. I know their parents were rich and left them both a considerable sum of money, but I’m sure he’s blown through all of his inheritance by now. And I’m sure that financial burden is often placed on Darby.
“Is he still bothering you?” I wonder out loud.
“Oh yeah. He’ll show up drunk and belligerent, demanding more money every Saturday night like clockwork.” She rolls her eyes. “I hate him,” she finally says.
I stare at her, waiting for any sign of regret about what she just said, but her face remains stoic. Okay, maybe she does truly hate him. I don’t know much about their relationship other than the fact that he’s a grade-A dickhead to her ninety-nine percent of the time I’ve been around them.
“But he’s the only family I left,” she says in almost a whisper, her body visibly relaxing as if she repeats that mantra quite often when he makes her upset.
“I’ll always be your family too,” I offer.
Darby’s eyes fill with tears as she looks over at me. “You’re the sister I never had but always wanted,” she confesses before hugging me so tightly I find it hard to breathe. But I don’t complain. If I die from a rare hug from my best friend, then so be it. It would be worth it.
Eventually, she lets me go and I can breathe again. “Okay. Let’s go to the restaurant across the street, order some mimosas, get drunk, and forget about the assholes in our lives,” she offers with a watery smile.
“That sounds amazing,” I tell her. If only it were that easy to forget Dimitri. It seems like all he does is occupy my thoughts. Hisicy blue eyes set in a cruelly handsome face haunt my dreams as well as my nightmares.
