I couldn’t be more disappointed to see Piper standing at the front desk when we arrive at the gym. She’s talking to a muscular middle-aged man who lifts his chin to greet Colt and Nix before turning to find me standing behind them.
“Oh. You must be Leni.” He extends a hand and gives me a firm shake. My boss, I suppose? His name tag tells me his name is Chad. “I was explaining to Piper how I’ll need some help in the storage room today. We just got a lot of supplies shipped in, and they need to be unboxed and accounted for. Think you could help her out with that?”
Exactly what I want. Time spent one-on-one with my ex-best friend. The two of us in a storage room with nothing to do but talk. At least I know there’s a time limit. It seems like the guys work out for an hour and a half, maybe two hours. I can handle a couple of hours with her, I guess.
“Come on. I’ll show you where it is.” She waves me along behind her, and I follow silently. I don’t dare look, but I wonder if either of my stepbrothers notices me walking with her. I’m sure they’d think it was funny. For all I know, this is the entire reason they got me a job here. Knowing I’d have no choice but to face the person who betrayed me worst of all.
It doesn’t take long to figure out what Chad was talking about. Stacks of boxes are lined up along one of the walls in the cramped room. Shelves lining the other three walls are covered in all kinds of items—towels, bathroom supplies, and cleaning products. And it looks like whoever’s been charged with keeping things organized and decluttered has been sleeping on the job since there’s empty packaging lying around, and the shelves are in disarray.
Rather than stand around and discuss what to do first, I grab a trash bag from a roll sitting on a shelf and start gathering up shrink wrap, packing tape, and things people have left lying around. Piper hesitates but soon follows my lead and straightens up the supplies left on the shelves. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can get out of this room.
“So the wedding was really nice. Your mom looked so happy.”
Ugh. She’s still trying. I don’t know if it’s obnoxious or pathetic. Maybe both. Rather than acknowledge her, I open one of the boxes waiting to be unpacked and start pulling out shrink-wrapped pairs of spray bottles full of cleaning solution. Rather than leave them on the shelves this way, so somebody will cut away the shrink wrap and leave it lying around, I separate them and line them up on the shelf. I might not have a typical job here, but I’ll still do it right.
“I heard why you left early,” she offers. “And I’m sorry she did that. I don’t know why she does those things.”
“Don’t apologize for her,” I warn in a flat voice. “You have no idea how it sounds. And it makes me feel sorry for you.”
“You feel sorry for me?”
“I do.” I still don’t want to look at or speak to her, but now that she’s the one who started this conversation, I’m not going to hold back. If she doesn’t want to hear it, she should leave me alone. “You know what she’s doing is wrong, and you know it deserves an apology, but you won’t stand up to her and tell her to quit it when she’s in the middle of being awful. So yeah, it’s really sad to listen to.”
“You don’t know how it is.”
“I think I do. But it doesn’t matter. You made your decision, and that’s fine. But you can’t change your mind and act like the past never happened. It did. And it hurt.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I really am.”
What good has that ever done? It doesn’t erase any of the pain she’s caused. All the time I spent wondering what I did wrong, why it was so easy for her to turn her back on me.
I can’t pretend it doesn’t feel good, though, hearing her apologize. Still… “That’s fine, but it doesn’t change anything. You betrayed me, and you were the one person I thought I could count on. We’re never going back to the way things used to be.”
She works silently for a few moments, and I think I might hear her sniffle once or twice when she’s facing away from me. “Okay, so it can’t be the way it used to be,” she finally murmurs. “But can we at least talk? Like, when we’re here together. We might as well talk, right?”
“Honestly? I have nothing to say to you. We’re not going to be friendly, so let’s just get the job done.”
Part of me expects her to argue, and I’m ready to be firm—or to flat-out ignore her if it comes down to it. But she doesn’t argue, only sighing before stacking rolls of toilet paper and paper towels on the shelves when I hand them over to her. For the first time in days, I feel good about myself. I put my foot down instead of giving in and accepting the little scraps of friendship she’s willing to give me now.
So this is what it means to set boundaries, the way I’ve always heard. It might be something worth doing again. I can think of a few people who need boundaries.
But no, because the other person needs to be willing to honor those boundaries. I don’t think Colt or Nix know the meaning of the word. Even if they do, they don’t care. If anything, they get off on knowing they’re crossing my boundaries.
It’s easy to lose track of time when I’m this busy, and by the time we’ve finished breaking down the boxes we unpacked, the door to the supply room opens. Chad looks around, eyes wide. “I have to admit, I didn’t think you’d be able to get this much work done so fast. I figured the two of you would be in here gossiping the whole time.”
I almost have to bite back a grin when I see the way Piper’s face falls. For once, it feels like I have the upper hand, and I don’t think anybody could blame me for enjoying it a little.
“What can I do next?” I ask, deliberately excluding her.
“No need for that. It’s time for you to go home, anyway.”
Here I was, looking forward to getting this over with quickly, and now I’m disappointed because I was kind of on a roll. “You know,” I venture, “I don’t have to leave with them. I can stay for a full day if you want. I’m more than happy to do that.”
He only shakes his head. “That’s not how this is going to go. We have an arrangement. You are here when they are.” Exactly what did they do to come to this arrangement? Why is so much of my life a mystery to me?
It’s pointless to argue. I have no choice but to walk out through the gym and into the lobby area, where my stepbrothers are waiting impatiently. Just when I was starting to feel good about myself, they had to go and remind me of the lack of control I have over my life.
Nix sends a smirk my way as we walk outside. “How was your shift?” I know he’s thinking about me being forced to spend time with Piper, and he obviously finds it hilarious. Again, I have to wonder how it’s so easy for him to forget everything that happened yesterday. He was almost kind to me afterward. Where’s that version of him now?