Ashlei
I punch the pillow that’s supposed to be propping me up, huffing again when I lean back and still feel uncomfortable. I lean up again, shifting for another punch, punch as the ice I have balanced on my shoulder slides off me, the bed, and then onto the floor with a thwack.
“Ugh!” I growl, letting my hands flop down on the bed and rolling my eyes.
I nearly cry at the thought of having to get up, bend over to get the ice, and then get situated again. Thankfully, Brandon comes into the bedroom with a soft, knowing smile and picks the ice up for me, helping me get it in the right place on my shoulder as he sits on the edge of the bed.
“I hear a lot of grunting coming from in here,” he comments.
“How the hell am I supposed to try to sleep like this?” I whine. “Have you ever tried to sleep propped up? It’s awful. My mouth keeps falling open, and then I’m snoring and my throat is dry and I’m drooling on myself.”
“You’re sexy when you drool.”
I glare at him, but he just chuckles, rubbing my thigh sweetly and leaning in to press a kiss to my lips — which I return with a half-hearted pucker of my own.
“Who needs wine?” Skyler purrs, coming in through the door right behind Brandon.
A little whimper is all the answer I give, but it’s enough, and Skyler hands me a damn sippy cup full of Sauvignon blanc.
I begrudgingly take the first sip, but feel marginally better afterward.
“I figured the nap wasn’t happening,” she remarks, climbing into bed next to me. She snuggles in under the covers and leans her back against the headboard. “Are you sore?”
“Yes. And irritable.”
“No, really?”
I give her a flat look.
Skyler smiles, patting my arm and sharing a glance with Brandon before she says, “You’re sad, babe. And it’s okay to be sad.”
That permission nearly breaks me, and I sniff, looking down at my bright orange sippy cup. “I just can’t stop thinking about my life without pole.”
“You’re going to pole again,” Brandon says quickly. “You heard Doctor Long after your surgery. He said once you get through these two months of recovery, you can start up at PT, and there’s no reason you can’t eventually get back to pole.”
“Except he also said my shoulder will never be the same again,” I remind him. “And that I may never get the full strength I had back. And that I might injure myself further.”
“Only if you don’t take recovery and PT seriously,” Brandon argues.
“Wait,” Skyler chimes in, brows popping up. “You really had a Doctor Long?” She smirks, waggling her eyebrows.
I snicker, too, which earns us an eye roll from Brandon.
“I’m just saying, we will get you the best physical therapy money can buy,” Brandon promises me, and he waits until I look at him, until I’m watching as he brings my knuckles to his lips and presses a soft kiss to them. “We will get you back to pole, okay? I promise.”
I close my eyes on a long exhale when he leans up to kiss my forehead, and I wish I could rewind to even two weeks ago, to when we were coming off the most perfect summer of my life.
I wish I could go back to coming home and being ravaged by him before I could even drop my purse, wish I could go back to events at work being my biggest concern, go back to knowing at the end of every day, the pole studio was waiting for me to decompress.
“I love you,” Brandon whispers, and I don’t miss how Skyler smiles shyly down at her lap at the words of affirmation.
“I love you, too,” I say, but it comes out more of a whine that makes Brandon smile.
His phone buzzes from his pocket, and when he pulls it out, he frowns at the screen, standing. “Excuse me,” he says simply, and then he’s out the door and answering the call.
I turn to Skyler immediately with a dramatic sigh. “Tell me about your life so I can forget about mine,” I beg, taking another sip from my cup.
“Hey, go easy on that,” she says. “You can’t have more than one glass with the pain meds you’re on now.”
I flick her off.
“My life is boring,” she says with a shrug and a smile at my gesture, but the smile slips quickly.
“Rounding out my final classes, recruitment is over. I’ve been focusing on new member events so we can get the pledges lined up with their new Bigs.
Cassie has her eyes on this one girl, so I’ve been trying to get them in the same places as much as I can. ”
“Little matchmaker, huh?”
“Something like that,” she muses. “I’ve been talking to my guidance counselor about what to do next, whether I should go for my MBA or start applying for jobs, or maybe formulate a business plan and try to get investors to get started.”
“Don’t you have enough money to do it on your own from winning second place in that tournament?”
Her face goes ashen, but she doesn’t miss a beat. “Sure, but I think I’d like to have at least one other partner in on the project with me.”
She doesn’t have to say so for me to know she was originally planning on that partner being Kip.
“Have you talked to him?” I ask softly.
Again, no name needed. She shakes her head, eyes on her wine glass.
“Do you want to?”
“Of course, I do,” she says, finally lifting her eyes to mine. “I miss him every second of every minute of every hour of every day.”
Her eyes gloss with the words, and I frown, reaching over to grab her wrist. “So call him.”
Skyler shakes her head, sniffing away the tears that hadn’t quite formed yet.
“No. I know it may not make sense to anyone else, and maybe it looks like stubborn pride.” She pauses.
“Hell, maybe it is stubborn pride. But he still doesn’t see it.
He still doesn’t understand what he did wrong, how badly he hurt me.
He apologized, sure, but he doesn’t even know what to apologize for.
He’s blind to Natalia’s true motives, blind to how he walked right into her trap, blind to how he put me behind everything else in his life and expected me to be fine with it.
” She shrugs. “He’s sorry he lost me, but if he doesn’t even understand why he did, then what would I be walking into if I just brushed this under the rug and said okay? ”
My frown intensifies because she’s got a point I can’t really argue with.
I open my mouth to at least attempt to ramble through some sort of positivity speech when there’s a soft rap of knuckles on the doorframe.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Brandon says, and the look on his face makes me sit up a little straighter. “Um… you have a visitor.”
If it was one of the girls, they would have just plowed right in by now. And if it was someone from the office, Brandon likely would have told them I’d see them next week when I came back. So I just answer with a confused frown, not sure what to say.
And when he moves to the side and Bo Hán walks under the arch, I drop my sippy cup, thankful for the child-proof lid as it hits my leg and bounces off to the floor.
“Holy shit,” Skyler says, popping up first with a wide grin. “Bo?! Oh, my God!”
Skyler runs to Bo, who’s smiling uncomfortably, her eyes flicking to me and then back to Skyler just in time to catch her crushing hug. I don’t miss the relief that washes over her the longer Skyler squeezes her, and the way her shoulders relax, her smile widening.
“I haven’t seen you in forever! How are you?” Skyler asks, pulling back to frame her arms. “You look amazing.”
And she does. Her sleek, sable hair is short and edged at her chin, her warm brown eyes highlighted with gold, lashes long and sleek.
She’s as petite as I remember from college, only now she seems to stand taller, more confident, like she’s not hiding a damn thing about herself anymore.
The long-sleeve, white, lace top she’s wearing buttons all the way from her chin to the hem of the little black flare skirt she’s paired with it, and though the heels she’s wearing are slight, they’re strappy and bright red and just enough pop of color to tell you you’re in the presence of a bad bitch.
“I’m good,” Bo says, tucking her hair behind her ear. Her eyes dart to mine then, and she holds my gaze, a soft smile spreading on her smooth, peony pink lips.
Skyler looks between us, then at Brandon — who looks majorly confused and marginally concerned — before saying, “Brandon, can you come help me with something in the kitchen?”
She doesn’t wait for his response before looping her arm through his and steering him down the hall. He gives me a questioning glance, but I smile and blow him a kiss, hoping it soothes whatever concerns he might have.
And then I’m alone with Bo Hán.
In the bedroom I share with my boyfriend.
Bo swallows, stepping inside a little bit as her eyes take in the length of me. “Do I want to know what happened to put you in that hardcore of an arm sling?”
“I fell off the pole,” I say, a little breathlessly, a little too quickly. I just keep blinking over and over like she’ll disappear with the next opening of my eyes.
Bo’s face falls slack at that. “You’re… you’re doing that again?”
I shake my head. “Not like you think. I got out of that situation, and I never looked back. But, once I got my career on track, and found Brandon…” I shrug.
“I found my heart missing that piece. So, I found a new studio. I’ve been dancing and competing…
they even asked me to teach,” I add with a small smile.
Then, I nod down to my arm. “Until this, anyway.”
“I’m sure they’ll still want you,” Bo offers quickly. “Especially if you’re even half as amazing as you used to be.”
I nod, trying to smile, but the frown etched in my brows overpowers it.
“I never thought I’d see you again,” I finally whisper.
Bo’s eyes well with tears, and she moves closer, letting out a long exhale as she leans down to retrieve the sippy cup of wine I dropped. She places it on the bedside table before sitting on the edge of the mattress, hands folding in her lap.
“I thought the same,” she admitted, her eyes searching mine.
A long silence passes between us, no words necessary as we took each other in. I wonder if the memories are flashing in her mind the way they are in mine, but the way her eyes stay watery, the way her smile quivers a bit — I know I don’t have to ask.
“I graduated in the spring,” she explains.
“My parents sent me to a tiny university in Montana, of all places. Can you believe it?” When my only answer is a deadpan look, she chuckles.
“Yes, I suppose you can. But… strangely, I grew to love it. The mountains, the pastures, the quiet. I had space to think, and to grow, and to come into myself.”
I nodded. “You seem happy.”
“I am,” she says earnestly. “I really am. And I… I finally got my parents to understand. I mean, I know it’s still hard for them, but I brought someone home — someone I met in Montana who I love very, very much,” she adds.
There’s a strange cracking of my heart, a splintering of a piece of it I’d forgotten even existed. That piece will always belong to her, I realize — no matter what.
“I know it’s not easy for them, but they love me, and I think they’re beginning to realize that that matters more than anything else.” She pauses, brows folding over her warm eyes. “I’m just so sorry you had to bear the brunt of their shock and confusion at the beginning of it all.”
“Don’t be,” I tell her quickly, and without thinking, I reach out to cover her hand with mine.
We both still at the touch, eyes falling to the contact before we meet each other’s gaze once more. But it’s not a touch born of desire or lust, it’s one of true, unyielding love and understanding.
Of sisterhood.
She squeezes my hand, and I close my eyes, a single tear breaking free and rolling down my cheek.
“I’m not here long,” Bo says. “Just passing through, really. The company I’m with right now just secured a client in the Brickell Arch building, so we’re here to court them a little and go over how our technology will integrate into their systems.”
I arch a brow.
“Oh,” she says with a chuckle. “Yeah, I changed my major. I’m a coding engineer.”
“Not even a little bit surprised, you little baddie.”
She laughs. “Anyway, I just… When I found out I was coming here, I knew I had to see you. I wanted to explain where I went, wanted you to know I didn’t have a choice, and that I thought of you every day for quite some time.
” She pauses. “I still think of you. And I’m just so happy you’re happy.
You know — all things considered,” she adds with a smirk at my sling.
I smile, too, and nod vigorously. “I’m happy you’re happy, too. And thank you, for coming to see me, for… for caring enough to give me this closure I didn’t realize I still needed.”
“I needed it, too,” she says. “And… hey, maybe instead of closure, it’s a new chapter. I’d love to have a friend here in Miami. If you’ll have me.”
I pull her in for a long hug as my answer, closing my eyes at the way it feels to have her back in my life — even in this small way. “Always.”
When we pull back, I shoo her off the bed so I can wiggle my way out and stand, too. Then, I loop my good arm through hers.
“Come on, I need you to get better acquainted with the man who swayed me to the more phallic side of my sexual desires.”
She barks out a laugh at that. “I don’t want to impose…”
“Nonsense. Stay for dinner. Stay the night, if you want to.” I squeeze her. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”
And with a smile from each of us, we venture down the hall to join Brandon and Skyler, and I find a bright gold lining on the dark cloud that had been hovering over me ever since the accident.