“I know you’re a stubborn ass, Xavier, but the last thing you are is stupid and that’s what you sound like right now. You know it’s more complicated than that.”
“Maybe, but I . . . I can’t let it be, because if I do, it just ends in a clusterfuck. She’ll resent me for screwing up all her plans or I’ll . . .” He stops there. He can’t imagine ever resenting her for anything, ever. Fuck.
“You’re gonna break her heart.”
“Maybe crack it, just a little bit, but better that now than what will happen if I stay. I can’t . . . She’d hate me and I’d rather have her be a little angry now than hate me forever.”
“Don’t you think she should get to decide that?”
“I think she’s never held back anything in the entire time I’ve known her and if there was something she wanted to say to me, she would have by now.”
“Xavier . . .”
“You can’t talk me out of it, Miranda. I just wanted to talk to you because if she’s feeling even a fraction of what I am, then she might need you and Sarah after this, and her friends aren’t always the most reliable – but if you can’t . . .”
“No, of course I can, we can. That girl is like a daughter to me and . . .”
“Good. Tomorrow, once I’m gone, can you call this number? It’s Francesca Sullivan, her best friend, she’ll talk you through everything.”
“Everything?”
“You’ll understand when you talk to her. Just promise me you will?”
“Of course I will. For her.”
“That’s all I ask.”
When he arrives back at Frankie’s house, there are a few familiar cars out front and in her long driveway. Good. She made it happen. Now he just has to survive it.
“I did what you asked,” Frankie says, perched on a barstool at her kitchen island that overlooks the living room where Bianca’s friends are spread out. She’s sending him a glare that could turn a man to stone. “So explain.”
When he tells them, they all just stare in abject horror, mouths literally dropping open.
“What?” Lexi asks, and when her brow furrows, he suddenly sees a resemblance between the sisters he’d never noticed before. “Does Bianca . . .”
“No, not yet, but I needed to talk to all of you before I go.”
“We’ll be there for her when you’re gone, obviously, but you’ll be back, right?”
“No, I won’t. I’m not coming back – not any time soon, anyway.”
The explosion is expected, but that doesn’t make it any less violent. He feels like an asshole, which is what Chloe just called him, but he needs them to move on because he needs them to do something for him . . . well, for Bianca, really. The expletives keep coming and he’s pretty sure Erik just called him a few names he’d never even heard before, but finally they lose steam.
“I’m leaving because . . . because Bianca and I were never engaged. We weren’t even dating. For a little while there, we were barely even friends.”
“Are you kidding me?” Erik mutters.
“No, I’m not. We’ve been faking this entire time.”
“It was your idea,” Frankie states, matter-of-factly. “No way Bianca came up with something like that.”
“Guilty as charged.”
“So you’re not engaged and you’re leaving. Does she know you’re telling us?”
“She doesn’t, and normally I’d leave that up to her except . . .”
“Except?”
