Page 8 of Thrones We Steal

I think of my own uni friends. I can’t remember the last time I’ve spoken to any of them. Our WhatsApp thread has been quiet for an eternity.

“What are your summer plans?” I say, even though it’s pointless to ask. Bea has never made a plan more than twenty-four hours in advance.

“Fran said her uncle might be able to find something for me at WBC, but I don’t know if I want to waste my holiday in a stuffy news station.”

“What’s Andrew doing? Are you two taking any trips?”

Bea has been dating Andrew for the past two years, and Rosalind has high hopes for the match. Landing the future Earl of Hansford is no small feat, and getting your daughters married to men with titles and money is, unfortunately, still a thing mothers worry about. I have disappointed her on this count, and her energy has been redirected in Bea’s direction.

“I broke it off.”

“You— Wait, what?”

She begins applying her favorite shade of lipstick, Chanel 426 Roussy. I watch her, transfixed.

“Why? You guys were great together,” I say.

“There’s someone else.” Her hand shakes and she has to wipe a smudge above her lip.

The bastard. “He cheated on you?”

Her eyes fly to mine in surprise. “No, I meant I met someone.”

“What do you mean? I thought you loved Andrew.”

“Andrew’s great. But he’s not what I really want.” She tosses the tube of lipstick onto the cluttered dressing table. “I want someone to worship me, to give up everything to be with me. Someone who will write me songs and fight battles for me and tell me he’ll die if he can’t have me. I want a Heathcliff.”

The clawing scent of makeup coats my nostrils. “Heathcliff and Catherine were toxic and unstable.”

“They were madly in love. They couldn’t function without the other.”

“Bea, it’s not normal to feel that way about a person.”

Her voice takes on a wistful sound. “That’s what makes it so beautiful.”

“You can’t truly want that. All of those emotional highs and lows—they’d eventually wear a person out.”

“The highs would be worth every single low. To have someone who loves you like that … It’d be the most glorious drug in the world.” Her voice has an ethereal quality to it that scares me.

“You’d have to come down some time.”

“Not if I could help it.”

“You can’t be serious. There’s no stability in a relationship like that.” I dust my face with powder like her words aren’t slowly carving a cave in my chest.

“Stability isn’t the most important thing.”

“Happily-ever-afters are make-believe, Bea. Every relationship is work, but it’s a lot easier with someone you trust.”

“Like what you have with Beck?”

“Yes! Exactly.”

“You’re with Beck because he always lets you have your own way.”

“That’s not true,” I say and catch her cocked brow in the mirror. “Okay, so he often does, but that’s not why I’m with him.”

“Don’t get me wrong. You and Beck belong together.” She stands and gathers her scattered makeup. The bottles make hollow clunks as they knock together in the bag. “But Andrew never made me feel this way. Like I’m on top of the world.”

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