Page 40 of Wait for Him

For once, I'd managed to aim my heart at someone I could actually have instead of leaving it parked where it's sat uselessly for years, pining after a man who was never going to be mine.

I did the healthy thing.

I chose the sane option.

David was age-appropriate. Available. Uncomplicated. He didn't come attached to my brother or years of history or a marriage certificate with another woman's name on it.

He was someone I was allowed to love.

So I did.

And look how fucking well that worked out.

By the time the elevator doors open on Michael's floor, I can feel myself slipping. The whole morning is catching up at once, at the worst possible threshold, right where I have to walk into another disaster and be the composed one.

Hot pressure builds behind my eyes.

Absolutely not.

I don't cry.

I don't cry for anything or anyone. I made that arrangement with myself a long damn time ago and have honored it through funerals, lawsuits, family catastrophes and several truly terrible haircuts.

I am absolutely not breaking that streak now.

Not in a hallway.

Not over David Fucking Walker and Jethro Can't-Put-My-Pants-On-Properly Farrow.

I have standards. AND WHAT KIND OF FUCKING NAME IS JETHRO ANYWAY?

I suck in a deep breath and stare at Michael's door.

Get your shit together, Rosalie.

“Sis?”

I jump.

Michael is standing in the open doorway staring at me.

I've been having my private mental breakdown directly outside his apartment long enough for him to notice.

“We need to talk.”

I stomp past him before he can get a good look at whatever is written on my face, because the very last thing I need this morning is my baby brother, the one person on the planet I've spent the better part of my adult life keeping the hard things away from, clocking that his big sister has been fighting back tears in an elevator over a man who wasn't even worth the ride up.

“What happened?”

“Sit.”

“Rose—”

“Michael.”

He takes one look at me and decides against whatever argument he was preparing.

Smart man.