Page 77 of Do It With Me

Bree made gagging noises into her glass. “I haven’t even met Kody and I’m already getting cavities just thinking about the two of you together.”

“What they have is the dream.” I slumped deeper into the couch, letting out a dramatic groan that was about seventy percent wine and thirty percent heartbreak. “Seriously, though. What the hell was I thinking? I mean, was he lying to me the whole time? Did he know? Was I just some little side quest between mergers and acquisitions?”

Bree gave me a look over the rim of her glass. “Girl, you’re not a side quest. You’re a whole main storyline.”

“Yeah,” I said with a bitter laugh, “Just one without the happy ending, right? I’m the main storyline of a horror show. Or a psychological thriller. Or maybe just the textbook they’re going to be using to train up therapists for years to come.”

Mercedes nearly snorted wine through her nose. “Okay, that’s funny, but wow, it’s also actually pretty dark.”

I waved her off. “It’s not dark, it’s true. He told me he believed in what I was doing and I believed him. He helped me with ideas for the shop. He bought tacos from a truck and actually looked like he was enjoying them like a real human being. I thought that meant something.”

“Maybe it did?” Bree offered gently.

I stopped pacing to glare at her. “It couldn’t have meant much if all along, he was secretly planning on evicting me. Even if he did or does care about me, he obviously doesn’t care that much. I’m starting to think that all he really cared about was getting off with a poor student girl he was about to pull the rug out from underneath.”

She winced. “Fair point.”

I flopped back on the couch again, throwing an arm over my face. “God, I’m such an idiot. The man literally owns a jet and I thought he just got me.”

“You’re not an idiot.” Mercedes reached for the wine. “From everything I’ve heard from both of you and what I saw with my own two eyes at the funeral, it did look like he’d found his soulmate in you.”

I sat up, my voice rising. “Well, like you said earlier, it doesn’t even matter because now he’s bulldozing my neighborhood and turning it into some high-end hellscape where nobody knows each other. I’ll never be able to afford a new lease there, and even if I could, I don’t know that I’d want to. It’s gone. All of it will be gone.”

Bree rubbed my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Ella.”

I sighed, the fire in me dimming into something sadder. “It’s just that I really thought what we had was special. We connected, you know? When I was with him, it didn’t matter that he could buy the entire city while I have to budget to afford toilet paper. We clicked like I never have with anyone else. Where does that leave me now that I know the guy I thought I was falling in love with doesn’t even really exist?”

Mercedes leaned over, bumping my knee with hers. “You’re going to be fine. You’ve been through worse than some shiny guy with commitment issues and a god complex.”

“Yeah,” I said, letting out a shaky laugh. “It’s just too bad that he took my heart and my lease.”

“Okay,” Bree said after pausing for a beat. “We’re officially cutting you off for the night. No more crying over rich men with emotional damage. You’re too hot for this.”

I grinned weakly. “Too hot to cry, huh?”

“Exactly.”

“Fine,” I said, holding out my empty glass. “But I’ll take just one more for hydration purposes.”

They laughed, but Mercedes did me a solid and poured it full. I took a sip and leaned back, letting the wine buzz and their laughter drown out the ache in my chest. Together, we drank, laughed a lot more, and ranted about boys who ghosted, boys who lied, and boys who wore loafers with no socks.

For a little while, I could almost forget that my life was unraveling. Somewhere deep down, I knew the heartbreak would still be waiting for me in the morning. I was just trying not to let it drag me down right now.

We were halfway through a bag of salt-and-vinegar chips and a heated debate about whether love or carbs was more addictive when there was a knock at my door. Three hard, unmistakable raps that made all three of us go still.

Bree froze with a chip halfway to her mouth. “Are you expecting anyone else?”

“Only the pizza guy,” I said automatically, but my heart was already beating too fast. “Maybe that’s him.”

Mercedes frowned. “That didn’t sound like a pizza knock. Pizza knocks are usually a lot more polite. That sounded serious, like you owe someone money.”

Before I could answer or agree with her, a familiar voice came through the door, low and rough, but heartbreakingly familiar.

“Ellora,” he said. “Please open up. We need to talk.”

I felt like all the oxygen had instantly disappeared from the room. Bree’s eyes went wide. Mercedes mouthed, oh my god.

“It was a serious knock,” she whispered urgently. “Do you want me to tell him to leave?”

I stared at the door, my wine glass trembling slightly in my hand and every nerve in my body screaming to get close to him. Holden was here. After everything that had happened, he’d come to my house and he wanted to talk.

Glancing at Mercedes, I shook my head and stood up. While I appreciated the offer, I didn’t need her to do my dirty work for me.

He’d come to talk, but as far as I was concerned, there was absolutely nothing left to say.