Most Ardently

by Susan Mesler-Evans

  There was a pause long enough that she briefly wondered if she’d been hung up on. Finally, Darcy spoke. “Something came up, that’s all.”

  “You’re a shitty liar,” she said. “Listen, I’ve checked all of Bobby’s social media, and he hasn’t said a word about leaving Steventon, much less about going to Massachusetts. You know what that makes me think?”

  “Oh, pray tell,” she droned.

  “I think he didn’t just not tell Julieta he was leaving. He was making sure she wouldn’t know. He must’ve known she’d catch on eventually, but thanks to his little media blackout, she didn’t figure it out until he was too far away for her to strangle him.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic,” Darcy said. “He just realized he has obligations elsewhere.”

  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t drive up to Cape Cod and kick his ass.”

  “Well, for one thing, his home up there has an extensive security system. For another, he’s quite a bit taller than you, and probably in much better physical shape—”

  Elisa groaned. “Stop holding out on me and tell me what happened.”

  “I told you. Bobby realized he had obligations outside of Steventon and your sister. It’s nothing personal.”

  “He left a girl he’s been dating for months without even saying ‘see ya.’ How in the hell is that not personal?”

  “Believe what you want,” she said. Elisa could almost see her condescending scowl.

  “You know something, don’t you?”

  “Even if I did, I wouldn’t be at liberty to reveal it.”

  “Just tell me why he left,” Elisa snapped, exasperation making her voice squeak a bit.

  “Obligations. That’s all I’ll say.”

  She ran a hand through her hair. “What about you? Where’d you run off to? You have obligations, too?”

  “No,” she said. “I’m just back home in Columbus. You are welcome to come and visit if you’re ever in the area. There’s always a guest room available to you.”

  Elisa took a deep breath to force herself to keep her temper. “Yeah. Great. Thanks. Bye,” was all she could bring herself to say before hanging up on her.

  She slammed her phone onto the table, slumping back in her chair. Well, that had been a dead end. She was certain Darcy knew more than she’d let on, but she was also certain it wouldn’t do any good to keep asking.

  She forced herself to hide her anger as Julieta approached, a tray of food in her hands. Things were already miserable enough. It wouldn’t do any good to stew.

  She would, however, absolutely be joining in on that breakup bonfire.

  Chapter Seventeen

  In Which Life Goes On

  Lucia tossed a Polaroid of Bobby and Julieta into the trash can. “I’m totes glad you came to me for this,” she said. “I’m the family expert at burning stuff. Now, are you sure you don’t want to throw some of the stuff he left here into the burn pile?”

  Julieta shook her head. “I told you, I’m sending it to him in Cape Cod.”

  “Oh, come on, what’s the point of a breakup bonfire if you don’t burn some of your ex-boyfriend’s shit while you’re at it?” she asked. “It’s feminism.”

  Elisa rolled her eyes, fighting a small smile. “Lucia, for the last time, property damage is not feminism.”

  “Anything can be feminism if you play Beyoncé in the background while you do it. Speaking of which, do you have the music ready?”

  She said, “This is ridiculous,” but reached into her pocket for her phone anyway. They were standing in the alleyway behind Longbourn with a small fire-safe trash can, a lighter, a can of gasoline, and every picture and memento Julieta had of her and Bobby’s relationship.

  Despite her insistence that she wanted to burn the items and move on with her life, it had taken some prodding to get Julieta to actually follow through. Every time Elisa asked, she said, “No, no, not yet.” She’d spent a week crying and looking at the photos, presents, and knickknacks, before deciding it was time to finally get rid of them. The bracelet she’d received for Christmas, however, remained in her top dresser drawer. Elisa had never intended to destroy that—it was worth nearly $500. She could be furious and pragmatic at the same time. Julieta had said she’d mail it to him, ignoring Maria’s suggestions that she pawn it. But instead, it was hidden away in her bedroom, clearly not about to go anywhere. Elisa had found the bracelet while cleaning that morning and had very nearly called her on it.

  But then she’d seen the tears in her sister’s eyes as she gathered up the items she intended to burn, and she just couldn’t do it. If Julieta wanted one reminder of the romance, one little piece of nostalgia to hang onto, she deserved to have that much.

  Lucia had been happy to help, especially since Elisa had told her that beating Bobby to a pulp was “sadly, not an option.” Of course, since most of the pictures were on the internet, and Julieta had vetoed burning anything that actually belonged to Bobby, the pile was rather small. But the idea of destroying it was still oddly satisfying.

  Elisa started playing the song Lucia had picked out for the occasion. She had to admit that the music did make the image of Julieta drenching the pile in gasoline before lighting it on fire a touch more epic. The fire was small, easily controlled, and ate up the pictures in mere seconds.

  Lucia bounced up and down on her feet. “Don’t you feel better already?”

  Julieta smiled weakly. “A little,” she admitted. “I’ve never done this before. This is more your area.”

  “Well, all your other relationships have ended mutually,” Elisa pointed out. “Nothing bonfire-worthy.”

  “What Bobby did wasn’t just bonfire-worthy,” Lucia insisted. “It was arson-worthy. Seriously, are you sure you don’t want to burn one of his shirts? If he left it here, it obviously isn’t that important to him.”

  “No, I’m sending his stuff up to him,” she said firmly. “Besides, that way he’ll know I know what he did.”

  Assuming Darcy didn’t already tell him about my call.

  They put the fire out before a cop could stumble across three Latina girls in a poor neighborhood burning things in an alleyway and inevitably haul them over to the nearest police station.

  Elisa could just imagine that phone call. “Hey, Mom, I know you’re at work, but can you come and bail us out? Oh, we’re in for arson…” Though, when she’d heard what Bobby had done, their mom had looked about ready to burn something herself—or, more accurately, someone.

  She wondered if Bobby knew how lucky he was he’d managed to get out of Steventon before he got knifed by a very angry Alejandra. Since that wasn’t an option, she had settled for ranting to anyone that would listen about how Robert Charles II was a lying bastard that didn’t deserve her daughter.

  It didn’t matter how rich you were. If you made one of her daughters cry, you were officially dead to her.

  Elisa had to appreciate that.

  It was still a nasty shock. Bobby had seemed like a genuinely nice, upstanding kind of guy. The kind who never forgot to call and would always do his breakups face-to-face. Julieta hadn’t been the only one to see a future for them—Elisa had seen it, too. In her eyes, Bobby had been the man that might have finally deserved her older sister.

  But first impressions, she reflected as she and her sisters went back into the apartment, were often wrong.

  …

  By early February, Elisa was almost used to Colin being around Charlene’s apartment. Since he was still keeping the relationship hidden from his mother, hanging out at his place wasn’t an option, apparently. Catherine Burger had a key and was prone to unannounced visits.

  Elisa barely even wanted to vomit anymore when they cuddled on the couch, holding hands, or even kissing. Colin was still a question mark, but she did like the way Charlene’s eyes lit up whenever he laughed at something she said, or the way she smiled whenever reading his texts. She was happy, and he was treating her well.

  Valentine’s
Day fell on a Friday, and the happy couple was planning to spend it in a cabin Colin’s family had in the woods about two hours away. Much to Elisa’s surprise, however, they weren’t planning to go alone. They had invited her and her sisters, and a couple other friends, too.

  “I thought you two would be playing honeymooners all weekend,” Elisa said. “You really want to spend your first Valentine’s Day as a couple with a bunch of other people in the woods?”

  “Valentine’s Day is about love of all kinds,” Colin said. “Romantic, familial, platonic…”

  “And my parents said they’d be infinitely more comfortable if we weren’t alone,” Charlene added.

  He blushed. “That, too.”

  “What can they do?” Elisa asked. “You live alone, and you’re twenty-one.”

  She shrugged. “If I didn’t agree, I was worried my dad would have an aneurysm.”

  “Well, I’ll be glad to go,” she said, pulling her feet up onto the couch. The three of them were in Charlene’s apartment, watching a classic sci-fi movie marathon. It was the only genre all three of them liked, and Elisa and Colin were both doing their best to avoid any conflict, no matter how minor. “It’ll give me something to do besides watch my mom mope about how it’s yet another Valentine’s Day where all five of her daughters are single.”

  “How’s Julieta doing?” Charlene asked. She reached for a handful of popcorn from the bowl on the coffee table. “I still can’t believe Bobby did that.”

  “She’s…coping. I catch her stalking his social media sometimes,” Elisa sighed. “But she’s stopped crying. She’s mostly focusing on work. It’s a good distraction—time-consuming and stable.”

  “Ah yes. Men may be fickle, but at least her job and her money won’t wake up one day and randomly decide to run off to Cape Cod.”

  “That’s the idea.”

  “I tried asking Darcy if she knows what happened,” Colin said, pulling his gaze away from the screen, “but she wouldn’t tell me anything. She just told me to keep my head up my ass and out of her business.” He paused. “Her words.”

  Elisa snorted. “That sounds about right.”

  “So, yeah, dealing with that all weekend will be fun…”

  She paused the TV, turning to stare at him. “Darcy’s coming?”

  Colin cringed. “When I asked Mother if I could use the cabin this weekend, I said I was bringing some friends out there. She made me invite Darcy. I didn’t want to. And I didn’t expect her to actually say yes. She’s coming up from Columbus to meet us at the cabin on Friday night.”

  Elisa groaned. “Dammit.”

  On the one hand, maybe it’d be easier to grill her about Bobby’s behavior if they were in the middle of nowhere and she couldn’t run away.

  On the other, being around Darcy usually left Elisa flustered, sputtering, and riled up. It was an unusual feeling for her, and she didn’t think she liked it. Sure, she’d had people she didn’t get along with before, but they never intruded on her thoughts quite as much as Darcy did. And it was all kinds of aggravating to realize that, with her beauty and all they had in common, Elisa might have actually liked her in another life.

  Is there such a thing as a hatecrush?

  “B-but,” Colin said quickly, “I also invited Willow, so she’s coming, too. Hopefully she can balance things out.”

  She sighed, unpausing the movie. It was an old-school space opera from the sixties about a team of astronauts who landed on an uncharted planet full of evil, somehow sentient robots and beautiful women who weren’t too bright. It was the worst movie she had seen in months, and she loved it. “Well, if you were planning a romantic weekend, it appears your plan has been foiled. I cannot think of a single mood killer more effective than Darcy.”

  …

  At dinner that night, Elisa told her sisters they were all invited up to the cabin—though she left out the Darcy part. She so did not want to think about it.

  “I can’t go,” Lucia said. “I have a date. He’s a senior.” She smiled proudly.

  Maria rolled her eyes. “He’s too old for you.”

  “He’s only seventeen.”

  “But still.” She sighed. “I can’t go, either. Lane’s birthday is on the fifteenth, she’s having a party.”

  Lucia did a double take. “You got invited to a party?”

  “Oh, shut up, Lulu.”

  “I’ll go,” Camila said brightly. “I haven’t got any other plans, and I’d like to see if you kick Colin’s ass.”

  “If she does, film it,” Maria said. “For posterity.”

  Lucia grinned. “We could totally sell that footage to some clickbait site. Angry English Major Body-slams BFF’s Boyfriend.”

  Elisa snorted and rolled her eyes. “Thanks, guys. What about you, Julieta?”

  Julieta, who hadn’t said a word throughout dinner, looked up from her food. “I…have a date, too.”

  Everyone turned to stare at her.

  “What?”

  “You got a new boyfriend, and you didn’t think to mention that earlier?” Lucia asked.

  She blushed. “He’s not a boyfriend. He’s just a guy at the coffeeshop I talk to sometimes. He asked me out for dinner, and I kind of thought, you know, ‘Why not?’”

  Mom looked concerned. “Honey, are you sure? You only broke up with Bobby a couple weeks ago…”

  Julieta shook her head, forcing a smile that didn’t fool anybody. “I’m fine.”

  “Still, I can’t help but hope that maybe he’ll come to his senses and—”

  Her smile faded away and was replaced with a small scowl. “And what, Mom? Come back? Beg forgiveness? Get real.” She sighed, picking at her food. “Bobby’s made how he feels very clear. He’s not coming back, and he’s not going to make a big, romantic speech about how much he loves me and misses me anytime soon. Probably never. He’s not gonna ride up on a white horse and marry me, Mom. We gave it a shot, okay? I thought it was working, but I was wrong.”

  Alejandra watched her eldest daughter, eyes sad. Elisa wasn’t sure what to do or say. Watching Julieta in pain was grueling for her mother. Elisa was sure it wasn’t just losing the opportunity to marry into money—she had a feeling that Mom had stopped caring about that a long time ago. She had half a mind to drive up to Cape Cod and give Bobby a piece of her mind for what he’d done to her sister. She had been through breakups before, sure, but not like this. Never like this.

  “Okay,” Mom said quietly. “I want you to move on. And if dating again will help…”

  “It will,” Julieta said. “Can we just drop it, please? Let’s talk about something else. Elisa, how was class today?”

  Elisa gave an answer she barely even thought about. She didn’t really care about school, and she doubted Julieta did, either. Valentine’s Day would seriously suck for her this year—so soon after being dumped. She was sure her sister was only going out with this guy, whoever he was, as a distraction.

  But who was she to judge? If a rebound was what she needed in order to forget about Bobby, then Elisa was all for it.

  …

  “Have fun, okay?” Julieta said, as Elisa and Camila finished getting ready for their trip. After checking their bags one final time, they’d headed down to the lobby to meet Colin and Charlene, and then, they’d be off. Colin would drive all four of them up, so Mom wouldn’t be without a car all weekend. Elisa wasn’t sure she wanted to spend the whole two-hour drive with him, but at least his car was sure to be more comfortable than the Benitez minivan.

  “We will,” Camila said, going to kiss her sister on the cheek. “And tell me all about this guy when we get back.”

  “I promise,” she said. “Now, you know what to say if someone offers you drugs or alcohol, right?”

  “Yes, I say, ‘One at a time, please.’”

  Both of her older sisters glared at her.

  “I’m kidding.”

  Elisa sighed. “I’ll keep her out of trouble,” she promised. “Don’t worry
about us.”

  Julieta smiled. “Have a good time. Don’t let Darcy ruin a fun weekend. And…if she says something about Bobby… I, um. I probably don’t want to know, okay?”

  She nodded. “I get it.” She hugged her. “See you Sunday night.”

  They said goodbye to their other sisters and their mother before heading downstairs to meet Colin and Charlene. Elisa decided to do her absolute best to heed Julieta’s advice. The cabin would be nice, and the forest it was in was beautiful. And it’d be nice to hang out with Willow and Charlene.

  As they got into the car, Elisa told herself that this weekend would be fun. But still, she couldn’t help but feel like the other shoe was about to drop.

  Chapter Eighteen

  In Which the Other Shoe Drops (…And Then Some)

  Elisa lost her phone signal about half an hour away from the cabin. She decided that this was a good thing—it’d keep her from obsessively checking Lucia’s social media every five minutes to make sure she was staying out of trouble. The cabin was tucked away in the woods next to a stream, which was frozen, and a couple rarely used nature trails. The ground was still rock-solid, but most of the snow had melted, and it wasn’t too windy.

  “It can get really cold out at night,” Colin said, parking the car and turning it off. “But the cabin has heating and electricity. A small kitchen, a bathroom with a shower… only two bedrooms, but the couches fold out into beds.”

  “It’s so cute,” Camila said, getting out of the car. The others were quick to follow, stretching their legs and shoulders. “Do you come out here much?”

  “My parents and I spend a couple weeks out here every summer,” he said, “and my dad comes here with his old college buddies for a couple nights every winter.”

  “Any idea when other people will start arriving?” Charlene asked.

  “Last text I got before we lost the signal was from Darcy—she’s about half an hour behind us, and she has Willow with her. My friend Tom’s driving, since Darcy doesn’t have her license and Willow’s is suspended again. Eddie and Freya are supposed to show up in maybe an hour and a half. Freya didn’t get off work until about fifteen minutes ago.”