by Sophie Swift
Danika, who I remember from high school, is also there. She’s staring intently at me as she lowers herself into a chair, looking like she’s getting ready for a matinee play to start.
I clear my throat. “Um, can we talk?” I ask Lia, eyeing our two spectators. “In private?”
“No.”
Her bluntness takes me by surprise but I nod. Apparently whatever I’m going to say, I have to say with an audience.
Fine.
She calls the shots. I’m just grateful she didn’t take one look at me through that window and keep the door locked.
“Okay,” I agree. But I barely recognize my own voice. It’s husky and warbled. Like I’ve been chain smoking since I was ten. “Look, I came here to tell you that I made a huge mistake. The hugest.”
Lia rolls her eyes, causing me to lose my train of thought. I take a moment to regroup.
“I know you must be pissed as hell at me. And you have every right to be. I’ve been a total asshole. I fucked up so bad. I don’t know what happened. Alex, she just has this power over me. I mean…” I stop, shuddering. “...Had. Past tense. It’s over now. I called it off. I told her I can’t marry her. She doesn’t make me happy. You make me happy. You make me feel like I could do anything. Be anyone. I’ve never felt like that before.”
I watch her face carefully, searching for a shift in her stony expression. Needing there to be one.
I tug my hands through my hair. “I chose wrong, Lia. Fuck, I chose so wrong. For far too many years. I’m tired of doing it. I’m tired of making the wrong decision. I want to start making the right one. You are the right decision. I think you have been for longer than I even realize. And I was just wondering…” My voice trails off, my constricting throat making it hard to keep going. I look to her, every inch of me pleading. “…I was just wondering if you might still choose me back.”
Once I stop talking everything is quiet. So quiet it makes me twitch. Danika’s eyes swivel to her best friend. Blake’s eyes stay narrowed on me. As though he’s reluctant to let me out of his sight for even a second.
Yeah, I feel the same way about you, buddy.
I pull my remorseful eyes back to Lia, who still hasn’t uttered a word. I don’t think she’s even inhaled a breath.
The stillness is squeezing the life out of me.
Lia’s eyes close. She looks like she’s trying to draw strength from somewhere beyond these walls. Beyond this earth. I watch her head begin to sway back and forth, back and forth.
“Grayson.”
The regret that shrouds my own name feels like a thousand needles piercing my chest.
Oh, God. She’s saying no.
She’s turning me down.
I fucked up too badly this time. I can’t fix it. Won’t ever be able to fix it.
She opens her mouth to speak—to finish shattering my fractured heart—but she never gets out another word. The doors burst open and into the restaurant barges a crying, trembling tornado of a girl.
It takes me a second to recognize her as Alex.
She stops short when she sees me, her mouth falling open. She looks from me to Lia to Blake and then back at me again.
The tension in the air is palpable. I feel like I could reach out and run my fingers through it and they would come back wet and sticky.
I watch Alex’s face shift, transforming from shock to relief.
“Thank God,” she says, turning to Lia with an appreciative smile as she dabs at her damp cheeks. “Did you talk to him? Were you able to change his mind?”
“What?” Confused, I glance between them. The two sisters who have ripped me in half.
“I told her to talk to you,” Alex explains, breathless and weary. “I told her to talk some sense into you.”
“That’s not why I’m here,” I nearly growl, causing Alex to take a step back.
I want to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. I want to scream until my throat collapses.
This is not about you, Alex!
It’s not always about YOU!
I manage to calm my erratic pulse long enough to get the words out that have been trapped inside of me for far too long. “I came here because I want to be with Lia,” I say, keeping my eyes trained on Alex, making sure she understands how serious I am. “I choose Lia.”
Dumbfounded, Alex blinks her large, teary eyes and then, after a moment of stunned silence, she begins to laugh. “What? Are you joking?”
I shake my head. “I’m not joking. I’m in love with your sister.”
I steal a quick glance at Lia. She looks like someone just punched her in the gut.
Alex’s expression hardens as the realization sinks in. As the truth hits her. She turns her fierce, venomous gaze on her sister. “You little bitch!”
She lunges for Lia but both Blake and I are there in an instant, holding her back. We each grab one arm and pin it behind her.
I suddenly have a lot more respect for the guy.
Lia recoils and moves a few paces back, keeping clear of this snarling, thrashing, frightening version of her once-poised older sister.
“I’m sorry!” Lia cries desperately. “We didn’t plan it. It just happened.”
“And you’re in love with him?” Alex spits.
My eyes flicker to Lia. Her shoulders are rising and falling rapidly. She finally turns and meets my gaze. Her steely facade has crumbled. I no longer see hate there. I no longer see rage. All of those emotions have simmered away, leaving behind something else.
Something that makes the pieces of my heart slowly begin to fuse back together.
“I’ve loved him for eight years.” Lia answers Alex’s question, but keeps her eyes locked on me.
Alex lets out a wild, animalistic shriek. With a single powerful thrust of her arms, she breaks free from our grasp. At first I think she’s going to try to attack Lia again, but instead she makes a move toward the door.
“You are a whore!” Alex shouts, turning back to her sister “You are just as bad as Mom.”
“Me!?” Lia thunders in return. “What about YOU?” The intensity and confidence in her voice seem to surprise everyone in the restaurant, including her. “I know about you and Blake! I know you slept with our bartender. Just. Like. Mom.”
My gaze whips to Alex then to Blake. The shame on both of their faces is proof enough.
Lia is telling the truth.
Holy shit.
“You think you’re above everyone else,” Lia bellows. “You think you’re superior but you’re just as weak and fragile and fucked-up as the rest of us. If you wanna judge anyone in this room, Alex, judge yourself.”
“At least I didn’t knowingly steal my sister’s fiancé,” Alex spits. “That’s just lower than the lowest, scummiest thing anyone can do.”
“No, but you would have,” Lia accuses, her voice calmer now. More controlled. “If it was someone you wanted, you would have stopped at nothing until he was yours. Because that’s what you do. You take things. You claim things like it’s your God-given right.”
“I have to take things!” Alex screams. “I’m not you. Adorable, talented, helpless little Lia. Everyone’s favorite. People just give you shit. Because they’ve always liked you best. Mom, dad, everyone!”
Lia blinks in surprise, looking stunned. “T-t-that’s just ridiculous!” she sputters.
“You get all the attention. You always have. Ever since you were a baby, stuck in that incubator and everyone thought you were going to die. Do you know what it’s like to grow up in the shadow of little Natalia, the miracle baby? You got everything you always wanted!”
Lia lets out an indignant snort. “Hardly.”
Alex turns her scathing glare to me, then back at Lia. “Oh really? Then how do you explain this?”
Lia doesn’t respond. She looks like she’s about to fracture and break apart.
“Well, congratulations, Lia Smart,” Alex seethes. “You win. Again.”
She bangs open the door and marches
through it, screaming at the top of her lungs for all the world to hear, “I never want to fucking see you again!”
We all stand speechless and frozen inside the restaurant, waiting for someone to speak. I glance at Lia and see that’s she’s visibly shaking. I run to her and wrap my arms around her. She crumples against me, her head collapsing into my chest as her body is racked with sobs.
“Shhh,” I whisper. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
Danika approaches us hesitantly and strokes Lia’s hair. “Are you all right?”
Lia shakes her head into my shirt.
I give Danika a reassuring smile, letting her know that I’m not going anywhere.
She nods back at me, understanding, and then says to Lia, “I’ll be in the kitchen, if you need me.”
Danika jerks her chin sharply to Blake, beckoning him to follow her. They disappear behind the swinging door, and Lia and I are alone.
I let her cry. I let her let it all out.
But I don’t let her go.
I keep my arms clasped tightly around her. Her body pressed to mine.
Seconds pass. Minutes. I don’t know how long I stand there. But I don’t care. I would hold her like this forever if she asked me to.
She finally lifts her head and I peer down at her.
“Do you think she meant it?” she asks quietly. Painfully.
I shake my head. “I don’t think she meant any of it.”
“It’s not true,” she vows with a sniffle. “Alex always wins. I never do.”
I plant a tender kiss on her forehead. “You did this time.”
She’s silent for a moment, her shiny eyes staring intently into me, as though she’s trying to mine my soul. “You chose me,” she murmurs, barely audible, barely convinced.
If I have to spend the rest of my life convincing her, I will.
“I chose you,” I repeat.
She bites her lip pensively, It’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.
“And you quit your job?” she asks.
I shrug like it’s no big deal. “It wasn’t for me.”
“But what are you going to do now?”
I exhale and glance around the empty restaurant. “Well, I was kinda hoping I could work here. I heard you’re in need of a good chef.”
Her face falls. “But I sold it. The restaurant. It’s gone.”
“Um, well,” I begin in a lofty voice, “I might have, sort of, bought it back.”
Lia gasps, pulling away from my embrace. She stares at me like she’s never seen me before. “You did what?”
“James Hallenworth is a client of my bank. Or, I guess I should say, my former bank. Before I quit, I convinced him that it was a bad investment and that this neighborhood was falling apart. The sucker believed me. I got it for a bargain.”
Her beautiful eyes widen. “But…I don’t want to run this place,” she protests. “I failed miserably at it.”
I point at her. “That’s only because you didn’t have me helping you. In case you haven’t heard, I majored in business.”
Lia cracks the tiniest of smiles. It melts me. “So, you’re going to save my restaurant?”
I move toward her, reeling her in with my gaze. “Actually,” I correct, “I was hoping to save you.”
She crosses her arms over her chest, defiantly holding back a grin. “What if I don’t need saving?”
I reach out, pulling her into me again, crushing her body against mine. Then I delicately brush a fingertip across her quivering bottom lip. “Everyone needs a little saving.”
Three months later…
I stare at the empty white page of my sketchbook, tapping my black marker thoughtfully against the surface of the table.
One more.
Just one more scene to draw and my very first graphic novel will be finished.
C’mon, Lia. Think.
“More coffee, m’lady?” a voice interrupts my thoughts. I slide my headphones off my ears and look up at Grayson. He’s holding the coffee pot comically poised above my empty cup like he’s one of those fancy, tuxedo-clad waiters on the Titanic.
“Oh, yes, please,” I say in my best posh accent.
He pours the delicious Italian roast into my cup, sets the coffee pot down on the table, and slides into the booth next to me with an exhausted sigh.
I glance around the restaurant, just now noticing that it’s empty. I check the clock on my phone. It’s already midnight.
“How’d it go?” I ask.
Grayson grins. “We broke a thousand dollars for the fifth night in a row.”
I beam. “That’s amazing!”
Ever since Grayson took over the restaurant three months ago, sales have skyrocketed. Our revenue has now surpassed even what it was when my mother ran the place. Word of Grayson’s delicious cooking spread fast around Eastbrook, and within two months, we had a waitlist every single night.
But he always keeps one table reserved for me.
Table 9.
Our table.
Where I like to sit and draw.
He nods toward my sketchbook. “How did it go here?”
“Good, I think. I only have one scene left and then I’m done.”
His eyes widen. “As in done done?”
I bite my lip. “I think so.”
“Awesome!” He gestures to the book. “Let me see the title page again.”
I grin and flip back the pages to the beginning, showing him for the umpteenth time the artwork I drew for the cover. It features a sexy girl assassin in a belted pink dress and black combat boots. She’s wielding nunchucks in one hand and a throwing knife in the other. She may look cute and slight but she’s fierce and pretty darn deadly.
Underneath in bold, metallic letters is the title:
“Lil’ Killer”
I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of showing it to him.
“My girlfriend, the graphic novelist,” Grayson says, kissing the top of my head.
I giggle girlishly, still getting used to the label. Both of them, actually.
It’s taken my dad a while to come around to the idea of me and Grayson together. He was pretty mad when we first told him. At both of us. But he’s finally starting to accept the fact that Grayson is still in the picture, he’s just with me instead of Alex.
And Alex…
Well, I haven’t heard from her since the day she stormed out and told me she never wanted to see me again. She certainly has kept her word on that.
I’ve tried reaching out to her countless times but she never responds. I guess I can’t blame her. Still, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her. That I don’t miss her. That I don’t regret her pain.
I wish it had happened differently. I wish Grayson and I could have found each other without shattering my sister’s heart. But that’s just not how it goes.
Sometimes endings aren’t tied up in a pretty pink bow.
Sometimes happiness comes at a price.
Just like my mom said.
But the difference is, I stuck around to face that price. While my mother ran away from the destruction she left behind, I confront mine every day. And I’m going to keep confronting it until my sister hopefully decides to forgive me. To forgive us both.
“So,” Grayson says, inching his hand up my leg and under the hem of my skirt, making me shiver wildly. “This last scene, you mention. Is it a steamy raunchy sex scene in the middle of an empty restaurant?”
I flash him a wicked grin, letting my legs fall apart, inviting him into me with my eyes. “It certainly can be,” I reply seductively.
He sucks in a breath through his teeth and moves his hand further up my leg, flicking his fingertip against the edge of my panties. His other hand lands on the back of my head, steering me to him. He captures my mouth with his, opening it wide with his tongue, and kissing me with everything he has.
I fall back onto the booth, releasing a shudder of a sigh. He reaches below my skirt and ya
nks my panties down, brushing his thumb back and forth until I’m wet and trembling for him.
“I definitely think it should be,” he murmurs huskily, undoing his belt.
I kick up, using my foot to draw his pants around his ankles.
He dives for my lips again, consuming me with his deep, probing kiss, as he lowers himself onto me, his glorious weight pressing my body into the soft foam of the booth.
I spread my legs wider, thrusting my skirt up over my hips. He maneuvers on top of me, finding his way to the place where he belongs. Where he fits perfectly.
I gasp as I feel him enter me, moving inside of me, sending tremors to the very epicenter of my soul. Rocking my body to the core.
Sophie Swift is an East Coast girl who recently transplanted to Southern California. She writes about sexy boys by day, and dates them by night. Her sizzling, new adult romance, OUT FROM UNDER YOU is the first in the new contemporary series, Smart Girls Finish First. She loves books that quicken her pace, music sung by adolescent boys, and cupcakes with too much frosting.
Visit her online at: www.SophieSwift.com
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