My baby sister. Clean and free and brilliant.
I turned slowly so I wouldn’t be walloped by the image I was about to see.
Her smiling at him with that twinkle in her eye so clear and full of hope.
Him smiling back at her.
She pulled him in for a hug, and her whole body flew into his—chest to chest, hips to hips, feet to feet. I saw how she looked at him, and I knew that look because her face was the exact same as mine.
When I stared at myself in the mirror, I saw my cheeks flushed, my eyes sparkling, all the wrinkles of worry disappeared from my face. Dante brought love out of me, just the way he brought it out of Izzy.
She turned to me, and her gaze dimmed. “What’s wrong?”
I nodded and gulped twice before I stammered, “I-I just need… a minute, I think. I need a-a minute.”
“Okay.” She scanned my face in question, then her gaze darted around the room. “I got a room here for a night—301. Come down and talk to me when you’re ready. Today, though. I’m staying one night and then…” She trailed off and glanced at Dante, probably considering how much she could tell me.
I nodded quickly, my emotions welling up in my throat too fast to think of anything other than getting out of that room.
I rushed to the adjoining door and pushed through it as I heard Dante call after me.
I didn’t stop in my bedroom at all. I beelined to the shower and peeled my clothes off as I turned on the water, cranking it as hot as it would go.
Scalding off my love for him was the only way I could think of to rid myself of it. If my sister loved him, I couldn’t.
His happy ending could be here in an instant, and they would fit together like yin and yang.
To me, it all made sense.
I cried and watched my tears mix with the water drops for as long as the water was hot. I let it wash over my shoulders after it turned cold too, cooling the heat on my skin and in my soul.
I grabbed a bright-red crop top and shorts, ones I’d been so comfortable in a week ago, and winced when they reminded me somewhat of Izzy’s style. Maybe Dante had seen a new me here that wasn’t really me at all… and maybe she was what he really wanted. He could love her.
I jumped when I heard the knock at my adjoining door.
“Jesus,” I whispered, and then I was up against it immediately, ready to barricade it if I needed to. “I need to talk to her first, Dante. I can’t see you right now.”
I heard a sigh.
Then my cell pinged, and when I saw his name, my fists clenched, not sure I could take any of his words. Still, I grabbed it like it was my last bubble of oxygen down in the deep ocean.
Dante: Lamb, why do you think I knocked instead of barging in. I’m hanging by a thread though.
Me: I need some time.
Dante: I should barge in there and fuck you until you understand.
Me: I’ll understand once I talk to her. Once this is over.
Dante: As long as it doesn’t mean we’re over.
I didn’t answer him. The fear of that was real, tangible, and what hurt most was that it was also probably best.
I went to her room shortly after. I’d heard her leave Dante’s room after listening as best I could through the thick walls. The murmurs between them told me they worked comfortably together, that they had things to talk about, that their relationship was already prepped for more. When I heard his door swing shut, I knew she’d left.
I’d known that always, but to see it on her face, to see how she looked at him now… that was the blow that I hadn’t seen coming.
Still, I walked to her room, ready to confess everything because Izzy wasn’t stupid. I’d watched how she’d absorbed what she saw in Dante’s room.