“Chlo, what happened?”
“I told Josh I wanted to get married.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t take it anymore. And he got so angry and started yelling and I told him to get out and then he . . .”
Xavier’s eyes meet Bianca’s over Chloe’s head and he nods toward her.
Carefully, Bianca takes the glass from her friend’s hand and asks without any preamble, “Did he put his hands on you?”
Chloe’s eyes fly wide open, shaking her head back and forth. “No, no, he didn’t, he wouldn’t. It’s just . . . I told him to get out and then he did. He just left, after all these years, and it’s over. I can’t believe it’s over.”
The dangerous light in Xavier’s eyes disappears and Bianca watches his shoulders relax. She hands him the glass and he retreats to the kitchen to put it in the sink.
“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t stay there,” Chloe says, shrugging, “and I figured you had the extra room since Julie moved out and I just—”
Bianca cuts her off. “No, it’s okay. Of course you can stay.”
“I don’t want to intrude.”
“You’re not. I promise. Right, Xavier?”
“You’re absolutely not intruding.”
“And even if you were, this is more important. You are way more important, okay?” She repeats herself from earlier, just in case Chloe hadn’t actually heard her, really heard her, the first time.
That seems to break something inside the girl she’s known since they were both scared twelve-year-olds sent off to the woods for the summer, who found safe haven in each other. All these years later, that’s still true.
Chapter 11
Xavier watches Chloe wrap her arms around herself at the elbows and squeeze tight. Then, with a quick nod, so fast he almost missed it, she agrees to stay.
“Do you want to talk about it or . . .” Bianca offers, but the other woman shakes her head, almost wildly.
Then with a soft voice, she whispers, “I think . . . I think I just want to go to bed.”
With fresh sheets on the bed and a glass of water, a melatonin gummy on the nightstand, Bianca hands over a pair of her pajamas to her friend.
“Thanks, you guys,” Chloe says, sending them both a tired smile.
“Sleep well,” Bianca says.
When the door clicks safely shut behind her, they let out a mutual sigh of relief.
Xavier turns into the kitchen, busying himself there, putting a stopper into the bottle of wine before offering her the last sip from her glass.
Bianca takes it and downs it.
The night took a wild turn from the first sip of that drink to the last.
“She’s better off,” he offers, washing out his own glass at the sink. He’d never even met the guy and he knows that.
“Yeah, clearly.”
“Why did she stay with him?” he asks, taking her glass too as she leans up against the counter beside him.
Bianca looks at the closed door and sighs, lowering her voice. “I think she didn’t want to start over with someone else. Like she’d invested all that time and energy and for it all to be for nothing, you know? I mean, I don’t think sheconsciouslydid it, but that’s kind of what I always thought.”
