Fuck.
I was tired to my bones after a sleepless night dreaming about the ways Zeus had touched me and the impossibilities that faced us now that we were going to be together. This was followed by a rough morning with Sammy, who had thrown a fit because his exhausted mother had forgotten to buy enough of his favourite sticky toffee pudding, so he’d had ice cream for breakfast instead. It seems like a small difference, but to a child with Autism, routine could mean everything and even though I’d tried to right his morning, poor Sammy was completely thrown off by the change and even Mute’s presence hadn’t brought him peace of mind. When I’d left, I was surprised but touched that Mute had offered to stay with Sammy and his single mum, Margie, who’d practically cried at the offer of help even though it was from a biker.
To top it all off, even though I’d texted him, Zeus hadn’t been in touch all day.
So, I was too tired for what I knew the Waterford China meant.
Company. The kind that my parents wanted to impress.
“Louise, thank God you’re home. Really I know I encouraged you to volunteer, but it seems like you spend every spare moment at the centre,” Phillipa said as she breezed into the room on a cloud of Nina Ricci perfume and kissed the air at the side of my cheek. “You have fifteen minutes to get ready before the Venturas get here. Wear the dress I had Yasmin put out on your bed and the pink pearls, not the cream or the white.”
“Mum, I’m really tired,” I said softly, swaying slightly on my feet because honest to God, I was fading fast.
She pursed her lips at me. “Louise, you can’t play the sick card only when it suits you. Besides, chemo doesn’t start again for another week so I know you can’t be feeling that badly.”
You know shit, I screamed inside my head.
Instead, I nodded. “Okay, I’m just going to lay down for ten minutes and then I’ll get ready.”
“Fine,” my mother said with a dismissive way of her hand. “I need you on your game tonight though. These people are very important. Javier Ventura is one of the richest men in Mexico and he’s decided that Entrance of all places could be a marvelous place to open a Canadian branch of his business.”
“Great,” I muttered, dragging my feet to the grand staircase so I could find some brief solace in my room.
“Oh, and Louise? Make sure Beatrice looks presentable, will you? I do wish she’d grow out of this awkward stage.”
I waved a hand over my shoulder as I walked away but otherwise ignored my mother’s criticism of my sister. I wasn’t surprised when I opened the door to my pink-and-white room to find said sister, sprawled on my bed reading one of my Cosmo magazines.
Immediately, she said, “Do you wanna take a quiz to see what kind of man you’ll end up with?”
I snorted as I dropped my bag to the ground, kicked my loafers off and face-planted to the frilly bed beside her. “No.”
“Yeah, I got Skater Boy. I mean, do skater boys even exist anymore? Aren’t they like so early 2000s?”
I could feel her swing around on the bed so she was sitting facing me and then I hummed as her hand stroked over my hair.
“How’s my favourite sister?” she asked softly.
“Better now,” I said, like I always did.
I turned my cheek into the bed so I could look at her and smiled tiredly. “Ready for another dog and pony show?”
“Yep. I’ll be the dog, you be the pony,” she said with a wide, brace-filled grin.
I closed my eyes as I smiled. “How was your day?”
“Good. I got a 99% on my biology test today. Mr. Warren told me that one day I may even surpass you in brains and beauty,” she said with a girlish giggle.
Immediately, I frowned and leaned up on my elbows. “Bea, baby, you already surpass me in both. I hope you don’t need Mr. Warren to tell you that, and I hope you don’t take what he says too seriously.”
Bea blushed slightly and wrapped a long strand of my hair around her finger. We had the exact same shade of pale hair but other than that, we didn’t look much alike except for our stature, five foot nine. She’d yet to fill out like I had, and something told me she would be long and lean instead of curved like me, but I knew she longed to be exactly like me even when I told her she could be better.
I fit our hands together, feeling the ridges in our skin line up and locked tight as I braided our fingers tight.
“Love you, Bea,” I said before pressing our joined hands to my heart.
She grinned, wide and happy, so carefree it took my breath away. “Love you more.”
The sharp vibration of my phone buzzing in the front pocket of my jeans broke our moment. I flipped over and had it in my hand, screen unlocked before Bea could blink.
Guardian Monster: Pick you up ’round the block at 9pm tonight. Tell your parents you gotta sleepover or somethin’.
My heart filled with helium and threatened to float into my throat. I hugged the phone to my chest and tried not to squeal like a little girl with delight.
“What’s going on?” Bea asked, lunging for my phone when I just shook my head at her.
“Buzz off,” I told her, laughing as I held her forehead back with the palm of one hand. “It’s private.”
“Oh come on, Loulou, tell me! I’m your best friend. Who else are you going to tell? Is it Reece?”
Fuck.
Reece.
God, I had barely talked to him all week and even though we weren’t officially exclusive, I had pretty much physically and emotionally cheated on him.
Damn, I really needed to talk to him.
“I’m going out tonight and I need you to cover for me in case Mum or Dad decide to care for a change. I won’t be back until tomorrow night.”
“Ooooh,” Bea crooned while waggling her eyebrows. “Are you finally going to go all the way with Reece?”
I bit my lip, grateful beyond all belief that Reece had never pressured me to have sex with him. We’d done hand and mouth stuff—a lot—but we’d both hesitated about the final deal and until now, I hadn’t realized just how much I’d wanted to wait for the impossibility of giving it to Zeus.
Now that impossibility was on the verge of becoming a reality.
“Maybe.” I grinned at my little sister and pounced forward to pepper her face with kisses, loving the sound of her giggle in my ears and loving for the first time in my life, the possible future that was unrolling like a red carpet at my feet. “I’ve gotta take a shower and get ready.”
“Make sure you shave your legs. Nothing worse than a missed patch of stubble,” she called after me through my laughter as I bounded off the bed, rejuvenated by the plans for the night. “Even you can’t pull off Sasquatch legs.”
I flipped her the bird over my shoulder as I shut the bathroom door on her giggles.
“Louise, darling, there you are,” my mother cooed as I swept into the formal dining room, twenty minutes later than expected. “You’ll have to excuse our daughter, Javier. She is just so busy these days with her extracurriculars. You know, she’s a talented ballerina, an IB student, a cheerleader, a member of the school board—”
“Please, Mother, I’m sure Mr. Ventura doesn’t want a laundry list of my accomplishments. They must be nothing compared to his,” I interrupted with a sweet, subdued smile cast at my mother and another, more appropriately awed one aimed at the tall, immaculately groomed Mexican man beside her.