I lean closer to her.
The music picks up near the party.
“Willow,” I whisper. “I think we should…” Break up. I can’t even force out those words without my eyes reddening. Pain searing. It’s selfish of me not to end this.
I know that.
She glares as tears run down her cheek. “Don’t you dare. I love you, Garrison.”
“I love you, too.” I’ll always love her. I stuff my chilled, burning hands into my pockets. “It’s why I have to go.”
We stand in the middle of her college campus. Phones pointed at us. And I feel like I’ve grabbed a shovel and buried us both under.
“You’re not breaking up with me,” Willow says in defiance. Like it can’t be done. “I won’t let you.”
I don’t deserve her. I don’t deserve her. God, I don’t. But I’m ruining her. My eyes sear, cold stinging the water that threatens to spill. “Willow—”
“You want to go,” she says. “I heard you. So we’re going to get in a cab and drive to the airport and you’re going to fly home. But I’m coming with you to the airport. You don’t have to talk. We can just sit. And then when you’re back in Philly and sober, you’ll call me. You’ll tell me what’s wrong.”
I don’t know if I will.
But I nod.
“I love you,” she says again. Wrapping her arms around herself because I won’t let her touch me. If she touches me, she’ll know I bruised…or broke my ribs. Or rather, my brother broke them.
Maybe she already knows. It’s probably on her list of possibilities. Still I can’t bring myself to mention what happened. It doesn’t excuse me punching her friend. It doesn’t excuse how I ruined tonight.
Yeah, I should let her go. Reject her offer. But I feel like the inked skeleton, fingers slipping from the one thing still alive in its hand.
And I hold on.
I’m holding on.
But I don’t know where we go from here.
Thank you so much for reading Whatever It Takes! We hope you enjoyed the beginning of Garrison & Willow’s romance. Their story continues and concludes in Book 2 of the Bad Reputation Duet, which still follows both past and present storylines. It’s all going down in Wherever You Are!
further reading
Ready for the next generation? Lily & Lo’s son Maximoff Hale is all grown up and has an epic love story in Damaged Like Us.
DAMAGED LIKE US
Don’t date your bodyguard.
It was the one rule he had to break.
M/M Romance
Want to learn more about how the Calloway Sisters and their families became famous? The entire Addicted & Calloway Sisters series are now available! Start with Lily & Loren Hale’s story in Addicted to You.
ADDICTED TO YOU
Two addicts (a female sex addict & an alcoholic) pretend to be in a relationship to hide their addictions from their families
New Adult Romance
january
53
garrison abbey
Heading into the first day of the new year, I try to be positive. Don’t fuck it up, Abbey.
It’s only been 48-hours since everything went down in London. But it’s honestly felt like a millennium. Officially, I think I spent less than two hours in the country before flying back to Philly. It’s pathetic on multiple levels, and embarrassed doesn’t even cut it.
The only upside: it didn’t end up on the internet. The students at Wakefield haven’t really recognized Willow or just simply don’t care. It’s another big reason she needs to stay out there for school.
“I can come visit next week,” Willow says, her soft voice echoing through my car speakers. I swivel the steering wheel and turn down a crowded street, traffic almost bumper-to-bumper.
Willow never got mad at me for punching her friend Salvatore. She wasn’t even disappointed in me or sad. It makes me feel worse because she has every right to hate me.
She said that she understood I’m going through something. Her understanding is like air, helping me breathe. But I’m not sure I deserve my girlfriend’s kind heart and empathy. I’m the bad boyfriend fucking with her perfect friends and her perfect London life.
I can’t let her go.
I can’t lose Willow, even if I’m the thing tarnishing the perfect world she’s building.
She never even pushed me to reveal more of what happened in Philly. I’ve never pushed her past her limits either.
We’ve always been careful with each other, and that’s something I appreciate. Because I don’t want to lie, and I think if she asked point-blank—did you see your brothers?—I would’ve come up with some shitty excuse. Anything but admit that I was stupid enough to go home during the holidays, knowing they were there.
What she did ask: Are you ready to talk about it?
What I said: Not yet.
The moment she finds out I saw my brothers again, she’s going to send in the cavalry to check up on me. Daisy. Ryke. Maybe even Lo. I don’t need them to bombard me, especially when no one but Willow even knows that my brothers have hit me before.