Chapter 51
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
ariana
I have been waiting hours for them to get home.
I had one glass of wine, which turned to two, which eventually turned to four.
I tried watching a movie, but ended up doom scrolling instead, waiting with bated breath for my brother and Arden to walk through those doors and give me the play by play of the events that went down tonight.
Unfortunately, Carter and Arden hate me because they went to Declan’s after they left the gala, so it took them three hours longer than intended to get back with all the dirty details. But eventually, nearing midnight, they stroll through the door and I shoot up from the couch.
Arden looks exhausted, trudging through the condo like her feet are connected to cement blocks. She smiles wearily.
Carter goes right to the fridge for a beer.
They tell me what happened, from the moment Penny grabbed Morgan by the hair, to the moment that Emma and Luka said their piece.
I fall deeply in love with Penelope Sweeten Lowes with each word, grateful that she’s my brother’s friend.
She threw down. I am devastated that I wasn’t there to see it in person.
I hang on to every word, asking questions until the pair of them beg me to let them go to bed. I do, begrudgingly, but I pull out my phone the second their door closes. If they won’t stay up to talk to me, I know somebody who might.
Me
I heard Penny got some hits in.
It takes him nearly half an hour to answer, and I hate the way that makes me feel. What is he doing? Who is he with? Was he at Declan’s? Is he still there? Is he out?
Boston
Understatement. She wiped the floor with her.
Me
Everyone okay?
Boston
Apart from Morgan? Everyone’s okay.
Me
Glad to hear it.
Again, he takes his sweet time answering me. I swallow, hating the way I immediately worry that I’m annoying him, that he’s finally grown sick of me, that he’s going to turn me down because I got boring after a few weeks of getting to know the real me.
Boston
If I hadn’t been drinking, I’d swing by to pick you up. This bed isn’t the same without you in it and I’d like that body pressed against mine after a night like tonight.
I smile, leaning into myself. Maybe I’m not annoying.
Me
You saying you miss me, Boston Black?
Boston
Every fucking second that you’re not around, sweetheart.
And if I remembered what falling in love felt like, maybe I would have recognized it at that moment.
Maybe I would have put a stop to it. Maybe I wouldn’t have.
If I remembered—that low, swoop in the stomach would have been a warning.
The warmth that spreads throughout your body when you hear his name in a casual conversation.
The way your heart races a bit faster when his heart is in the same room.
The way time seems to slow in all the moments where it’s him and me, but everything else races on by.
Maybe I would have been able to tell what was happening if I could recall the good parts of love.
Maybe I would have realized. How I wasn’t only about to fall, but I’d already stepped on the cliff.
Maybe I would have prepared myself for a softer landing, knowing that it wasn’t just a freefall, but a freefall without a parachute.
It was always going to end painfully, but if I had known then, if I had realized, maybe I would have braced myself for the impact.