“Except I know how she’ll play it if she does. She’ll take the blame and let every single one you be pissed off about it.”
“I don’t know, I think being lied to about getting married is a decent reason to be angry,” Isobel says, her eyes narrowing.
“Maybe it is, but she had at least as much reason to be angry with all of you,” Xavier says. He has nothing to lose, so he may as well just put it out there.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means exactly what I said. Listen, I’m leaving and before I do, there’s some stuff I need to say to you all, because she’s never going to say it and it needs to be said. I’ve been lucky enough to know Bianca for five years and coming to know her, being allowed even a small space in her life, has been a privilege.”
“Obviously,” Frankie cuts in.
“Yeah, obviously, right? You’d think it would be, but it’s a privilege you all fucking take for granted. Do you know why we faked our engagement? Because none of you could be assed to show up to celebrate the most important moment of her life – and she knewinstantlythat if she had a ring on her finger instead that you would all drop whatever was going on and be there. And she was right. Of course she was. She’s always right about shit like that. She’s been there for all of you, for your best and your worst. I used to wonder about the people she was always dropping everything to show up for, whether any of you were worth the way she was killing herself to be there for you in the middle of the toughest academic work of her life. It turns out, you are. I know now how much you love her, how much she loves you all, but Jesus fucking Christ, even in the middle of being pissed off at you, rightly so, she wasstillthere for you, showing up every time you needed her, every time you called, and enough is enough. You need to be there for her.”
“It sounds like you want that job,” Erik says.
“It doesn’t matter what I want. What matters is that she’s happy.”
“She’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her right now,” Lexi insists.
“She has every reason to be. She’s a doctor and her dream job is hers. Nothing should have gotten in the way of that happiness, but you all did and you need to fix it.”
“I meant with you,” her sister corrects him.
Xavier shakes his head. “It’s not real. It was never real. Her life is here. Mine isn’t. And that’s the reality of it. But you’re her friends, her family, blood or not, and she needs you all to start stepping up for her the way she does for you over and over again.”
“As much as it pains me to admit it, you might be right,” Frankie says.
“I know I’m right,” he says, “and once I’m gone, you’re going to start showing her.”
When he gets back to the house, his car is fully empty, the boxes packed away in storage with the rest of his stuff. He called Paolo and his plane ticket, one-way, is bought and paid for, flying out tomorrow morning at five.
There’s just one thing left to do. Maybe the hardest thing he’s ever done.
“Hey,” she says, her back to him when he walks in the door. She’s washing the dishes, barefoot, still in the shirt she fell asleep in last night, hair at the top of her head and the sexiest he’s ever seen her. This is the life he’s giving up. Fuck. “Do you want to go get breakfast? I haven’t been to Jacks N Joe in forever and . . .”
“Bianca,” he rasps and something in his voice must give him away because she turns around, concerned.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“When I woke up you were gone. Where did you go so early?”
“I . . . I went to put my stuff in storage and clean out my desk at work.”
“All before ten? Feeling motivated this morning?”
“Ah, well, that’s . . . No, I . . . Can we talk?”
She tilts her head to the side in question. “Sure?”
“I . . . Shit, I’m just gonna say it. I’m leaving.”
It’s not the way he wanted to do it, though if pressed, he’s not sure he could have described what the perfect thing to say in this moment would be.
“You’re leaving . . .” She trails off and she’s smart enough to figure it out. “Now?”
“Yeah, well, tomorrow. Paolo booked me on an early morning flight.”
