“I can’t believe you still call him that. He’ll love it when I tell him. He misses you, too.”
I wait for Juliette to stand up again. To walk off and flee, but she doesn’t—she only murmurs, “I wish you would have just talked to me then. We could have worked through everything together like we always did. I didn’t need a baptism by fire. I neededyou.”
Isabelle slides over again, and now they’re sitting side by side. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I know I should have said this long ago, but I’m sorry, Juliette. I know now how wrong I was, and all I want is for us to try to salvage whatever we can from this.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Juliette says, her voice resigned. “Even if we do scrape together some form of a relationship, I’ll only screw it up. That’s what I do best. In fact, it’s a pity you didn’t find me after the pop-up, because you could have witnessed my most destructive tour de force to date. In the span of five minutes, I drove away the kindest, most dedicated person I’ve ever met, and who probably would have walked through fire for me if I asked her to.”
My heart plummets into my stomach then, and I almost forget how to breathe.
“Are you talking about Roshni? I saw her last night, and she was pure sunshine the whole time we spoke.”
“No,” Juliette clarifies. “I’m talking about my former assistant, Winnie.”
“Winnie?” Isabelle echoes. “You know, I meant to ask you if she’s been spending time with Liam of late. If she has, she’s been a wonderful influence on him.”
“Why, yes, she was,” Juliette answers with a dreary laugh. “And I’m the cursed old crone who tried to force her and Prince Charming apart, because I didn’t want to lose her. And of course, that’s exactly what I ended up doing.”
I’m frozen in place, and every inch of me feels like it’s weighted down by cement. I couldn’t move even if I tried. This might be as close as I get to ever receiving an apology from Juliette.
“I’m sure you could talk to her,” Isabelle says.
“I doubt that. I said and did unforgivable things. I don’t have the right to talk to her anymore.” The room turns so quiet that my ears ring with it. Why couldn’t she care about me enough to say this to my face? Why couldn’t she choose me over her pride? “She saw Paul,” Juliette then goes on. “Can you believe that?”
“Paul?” Isabelle asks, her voice sounding shell-shocked. “As in Paul, Paul?”
“Yes, Paul, Paul.”
“And what did he say?”
“I don’t know,” Juliette answers. “He wrote me a note, but I didn’t open it.”
I hear Isabelle gasp. “What? Give it to me and I’ll open it right now.”
Juliette promptly stands up from the couch. “I think not, traitor. We may be acting civil now, but I’m not forking over my personal correspondence anytime soon.”
“Fair enough,” Isabelle says, sounding closer to happy than defeated. “So, where do we go from here? Do we just get to know each other again?”
“I haven’t changed much,” Juliette admits. “I get more back pain now.”
Isabelle’s melodic laugh sweeps through the space like a soothing breeze. “I do, too. I also sleep with a hot water bottle next to my feet.”
“Really?” Juliette asks. “I know you’re getting older, but I didn’t realize you were a Depression-era schoolmarm.”
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” her sister says. “And what are you going to do about Winnie?”
I freeze up when I once again hear my name—anxiously waiting for Juliette’s response.
“I don’t know,” my former boss answers. “I don’t think there’s anything I can do. I screwed things up beyond repair this time.”
Dread and painful acceptance wash over me. It’s cold and it stings. The next voice I hear is Isabelle’s. “You could apologize. Maybe don’t wait a hundred years to talk things out like we did.”
“I tried apologizing last night and failed spectacularly. The truth is, she’s better off without me. She’s bright and kind, and I only stifle her. I don’t deserve her. I really never did.” She pauses then, and I don’t breathe until she speaks once more. “I’ll apologize again when the time is right. When I can prove to her that I’ve changed.”
“And until then?” her sister ventures.
“Until then... I’ll just really, really miss her.”
25
