Another snort. “Do you suddenly have the ability toread minds? Wow, Damon. What an invaluable skill. Now, the question is… Will you use your new superpower for good or for evil?” She eyes me playfully. “I’m leaning toward evil, but you do have a certain Batman energy about you, so it could go either?—”
“Sage!”
“Damon.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, mentally exhausted by her subtle games. “Just stop, okay?”
Sage is quiet for a moment, a miracle, before she takes a deep breath, and says, “Listen, Damon. This is your life, okay? It’s not mine. If you want to spend the rest of your days cooped up in some multimillion-dollar condo all alone wishing your life turned out different, then that’s your prerogative.”
“See! Even the way you phrased that, I can tell that you don’t agree with my choice.”
Sage groans, rolling her head. “Well, of course, I don’t fucking agree with it, Damon, but what the hell am I supposed to do? Hit you over the head with a mug until some sense is knocked into you? You’re a grown-ass man, and you have the right to make your own choices, no matter how idiotic. I’m done trying to make you see reason.”
A muddled sense of relief washes over me. “Was that so hard? Being honest?”
Sage gives me a weak smile. “There’s a time and place for honesty, Damon. Given the state of your condo and the fact I don’t think you showered for a week before I stopped by, honesty was the last thing you needed to hear.”
I swallow. “I’ll be fine. I’m just…processing.”
She tilts her head. “You can always go back, Damon. If you’re unhappy, you can go back. Given what you’ve told me, Quinton and Emery would welcome you with open hearts.”
I shake my head. “No. I can’t. I can’t go back.”
“Then don’t.” She pauses before casually changing the subject. “Oh! They found a lump in my breast. Did I tell you that? Big ol’ sucker.”
I blanch. “What?”
She picks up her fork and plays with a noodle on her plate. “Yup. The big C. Apparently, we caught it early enough, so I should be okay after the mastectomy. But it’s funny.” She chuckles under her breath. “Most parents leave their kids an inheritance, you know, money or real estate.” She glances up at me, and my heart sinks. “I inherited a gene. Funny, right?”
“That’s not funny.”
“Really? I think it is. Maybe not funny ha-ha but funny ironic. It’s my own fault, really. I should’ve done the BRCA gene test as soon as my mom was diagnosed.” She shoves another meatball in her mouth. “But I was scared.” She swallows, laughing again. “For good reason, it seems.” She nods down to my untouched plate. “Are you going to eat that?”
“Sage…”
How is she so calm? How is she laughing? How is she making light of such a bleak and serious situation?
“Nuh-uh.” She shakes her head. “Nope. Don’t look at me like that, Damon. I don’t want your pity or your sympathy. I’m happy. I’m in love. My small business istaking off, so I’m not going to let a little cancer get me down. Got it?” She points her fork in the direction of my plate. “Can I have a prawn?”
I push the plate toward her. “You must think I’m ungrateful.”
She sighs. “I think nothing of the sort. Maybeyouthink thatyou’rebeing ungrateful.”
My jaw clenches. “I?—”
“You do that a lot, you know? Put your own thoughts in other people’s heads and claim that it’s theirs. I get it, though. It’s like a self-preservation tactic. A way of protecting yourself. I hope one day, you’ll learn that nobody hates you as much as you hate yourself.”
My muscles clam up, nausea creeping up my throat. “My hatred is warranted, Sage. Trust me, you’d hate me too if you knew all the things I’ve done.”
“Does Emery know?”
I look away.
“Doesshehate you? Or does she understand? Does she accept you just the way you are?”
I keep my gaze lowered. “That doesn’t matter.”
“Thenwhatmatters, Damon? You said that you’re processing. Well, spoiler alert, but at some point, the process is over. There’s always an end goal. There’s a finish line. What does the finish line look like? Because you can’t process something forever.”
