“She’s already dead remember,” he muttered so quietly I didn’t think I was meant to hear so I didn’t ask him to explain.
“How’s Melissa?” I changed the subject.
“She’s perfect, as always. She told me to invite you to come and stay for the weekend… once Sean the Sleep Strangler moves out again.”
Sean glowered in his direction, making us all laugh.
“And you, big boy? How’s things with you?” My attention turned to Jarrid.
“Good.” He blushed.
“That good, eh? I want to know more, but not when your bosses are around. I sense there is some dirt that needs spilling.”
Jarrid pushed his fingers through his hair. “I’ll text you the tea later, but what are you going to do about Charlie… give up? Move on?”
I let out a gasp, pressing my hands to my heart at the thought of not being able to make this better.
“No… I mean, he hates me and I get why, but no. I love him. I don’t want anyone else. I’ve never met anyone like him. It was like…” I paused while I tried to find the right words. “He was my best friend, the hottest lover and… God, he was my everything.”
Sean made a vomiting noise and Thomas smacked him around the back of the head again before asking, “So what are you going to do about it?”
“What?”
“Fern Richards, you are one of the strongest, bravest women I know. Are you telling me you’re just going to sit back and let him go?”
“I’ve tried everything I can think of.”
Thomas frowned. “No, you haven’t, because if you had, then he’d have listened. Try harder. Think bigger. Go bolder.”
“But don’t fake your own death. Only dickheads do that.”
Thomas glared at Sean like he was about to take out his gun and shoot him as Jarrid and I burst into fits of laughter.
“I guess I can’t make things any worse.”
Chapter 39
Charlie
“C, can you start getting the food out? I just want to show Archer something.”
Fox and Arch vanished from Fox’s kitchen while I mumbled about being Dobby the House Elf fromHarry Potteras I pulled the plates from the cabinet and took the takeaway boxes from the bag they were delivered in. They’d been in a weird mood for days, whispering and conspiring in corners.
As I took the chili beef container from the paper bag, a piece of paper fell out. I opened it without thinking, the familiar handwriting hitting me like a punch to the gut. I wanted to ball it up and throw it in the bin, but something made me read it.
Myth Maker,
I miss you. I love you. I want to make this right.
I know what I said was wrong and I hurt you, but I won’t give up and I’m going to get creative, so you have to listen to me.
Life isn’t the same without you in it.
Your princess.
My heart hammered as I read her words, hearing her voice in my head for the first time since that interview… since she annihilated my heart with a single sentence.
I’d ignored her all this time because I’d not even begun to start piecing myself back together and I knew if I saw her again, my resolve to stay angry would crumble like dust.
