chapter twenty-four Basically a Sister #2
Gabe brushes his long blond hair aside and gives me a small wave, then goes back to tousling Winston’s grey fur. Lex looks from Gabe and Winston up to me, and her smile immediately falls when she notices my demeanour.
“Are you excited for your big play in two days?” I ask Gabe, trying to sound normal. “Have all your lines memorized, your
makeup figured out, costume on point?”
Gabe doesn’t look up from Winston, but he nods and says, “Yep.”
I can’t help but smile. A conversationalist he is not.
“Sweetie, why don’t you take Winston to the backyard? Throw the ball around? Do you feel safe doing that by yourself?” Lex
asks, crouching so she’s eye level with her son. Gabe gives Lex an enthusiastic nod and Lex looks to me. “Is that okay?”
“Yes! That would be great.”
Gabe grins, excited to have a bit of freedom and show us how responsible he is. Lex shuffles Gabe and Winston up the stairs
and out the door, leaving the two of us alone.
I gesture to the couch. “Shall we?”
“What happened?” Lex asks, sitting next to me. “Did he take the news pretty hard?”
Part of me wants to lie to her, to tell her that everything went great, that I said what needed to be said with Olsen and
we can move forward with our relationship, free and clear. Knowing me, if I thought for even a second I’d get away with a
lie like that, I might consider it. Unfortunately, there’s no way around the uncomfortable truth.
I take a deep breath, and then look into Lex’s clear blue eyes, which are perceptive as hell. Her brows furrow, expression
shifting, and she leans back as she regards me. “You didn’t tell him.”
I open my mouth to speak, but no words come out. After gaping like a fish for a long moment I shut my trap and manage a guilty
head shake.
Lex stands and turns to face me, her stance tense and rigid. “What do you mean, you didn’t tell him?”
I squeeze my hands in my lap. “I was about to, honestly, I was! But it’s not as simple as I thought it was going to be.”
Lex regards me with sheer, utter confusion, hands on her hips. “What’s not simple? I love you. You love me. Tell my brother
so I don’t have to keep this weird secret anymore and tiptoe around my own house. That’s what you said you were going to do.”
“I know, I know! I went in there fully ready to tell him everything but . . . but then something awkward happened.” My heart
is pounding with the implication.
Lex stares at me blankly. “So?”
“So?” I stand so we’re eye to eye. “The curse isn’t broken, Lex! Awkward shit’s been happening between me and you, too. I’ve
been brushing it off, thinking it’s a coincidence, but after meeting with Olsen I thought, holy shit, what if I got it wrong? If true love is what breaks the curse, then maybe . . .”
Lex’s eyes pierce straight into my soul. “Are you telling me that you don’t believe the curse is broken, and therefore I may
not be your true love?”
“Well . . .”
Lex takes a step back, a hand pressing to her chest. “Hold on . . . you’re not sure if you love me?”
I reach for her, gripping her arms. “That’s not it, Lex. I love you. I just—I’m confused. And I’m scared. I thought the curse
would be broken, but it’s not. I don’t know what to do. That’s why I needed to see you, so we could work this out together.”
“Okay. Then let’s work this out.” Lex takes a slow breath, then removes my hands from her arms, holding them instead.
She thinks for a long moment, weighing her words and choosing them carefully, as she always does.
When her gaze meets mine once more it’s with slight trepidation, as if she’s been trying to bring this up for a long time but hasn’t found the right way.
“Have you ever thought that you use the curse as an excuse to push people away?”
“I don’t push people away,” I say quickly, dismissive.
“Think about it,” she says, her tone still soft and careful. “Did you try to make things work with any of the people you dated?
Or did you run away as soon as things got tough?”
My brain scans through my long dating history, trying to find just one instance where I can prove her wrong. I can’t.
“I know things have been hard for you,” Lex continues, “and I can imagine growing up not knowing your dad, having an emotionally
unavailable mother, and being bullied in high school has led to some commitment issues. I hope you’d be open to getting some
help, maybe talk to a therapist about it, but that’s something we can work through—together. What we can’t work through is
you using the curse as an excuse to run away from your problems.”
“It’s not an excuse,” I say, more defensively than intended. “I’m cursed! You’ve proven it.”
She shakes her head. “The burden of proof is on the person making the claim. I gathered data and analyzed it the best I could,
and I warned you right from the beginning that the P value was barely significant, but I thought . . .” She trails off.
“Thought what? That it wasn’t real?”
She shrugs. “Maybe. Or if the curse was real, you’d either break it and be cured . . . or come to accept it and move on.”
I scoff. “Accept the curse? As in, live with it forever?”
Her mouth twists to the side. “It seems like it’s not that bad?”
“Not that bad? Not that bad!” I pull away from her, flinging my hands out at my sides. “Were you not on all those dates with
me?”
She fits me with an unamused expression. “I was there with you for every moment, one step behind you, with wet wipes and spare pants at the ready.”
I shrink a little. “You were. Thank you.”
“That’s not enough for you, though, is it?” Her voice becomes unsteady, laced with pain. “I’m not enough.”
“That’s not what I mean.” I step closer and take her hands, squeezing them. “Lex, what we have is amazing. You are incredible.
I love every moment we get to spend together, and when we’re apart you’re all I can think about. Being with you is better
than anything I ever could have hoped for.”
She raises a single brow. “But?”
“But then why is the curse still happening? It should be over! You said it yourself, sneak in as a friend, work past the curse,
and then seal the deal with ‘true love’s fuck.’”
Lex’s head tilts. “Wait a second, did you sleep with me just to try and break the curse?”
“What! No!” God, is that what she thinks of me? “I slept with you because I wanted to be close to you, and I still do.” I rub my thumb over the soft skin of her wrist, remembering
how it felt to hold her, to feel the press of her body against mine, how special it was to share those vulnerable, cherished
moments. I want more of that, so much more.
Lex’s eyes shimmer. “You told me you were willing to risk our friendship for love, that it would be worth it. But now, after
I put myself out there for you, you’re having second thoughts.”
“I do love you, and I do want this,” I say, and I mean it with every fibre of my being. “I’m only having second thoughts because of the curse. Not
because of you. You are the only thing I’m sure about.”
Her eyes dance between mine, brow furrowing. “Then why does the curse even matter? We found each other, didn’t we? Wasn’t that the whole point of going on all those dates, to find someone to share your life with?” A small smile graces her lips. “What more could you want?”