Page 137 of I Was Always Yours (RCA: Royal Crown Academy)

“I know but if I start crying again, I might not stop and I don’t want to ruin our night.”

“Did it not go well when you guys were home?” Thayer asks.

“The opposite.” I tell her, taking a long sip of champagne. “It was amazing. I thought that maybe… it would change things. I think I was just being naive.”

Nera squeezes my hand sharply, pulling my attention over to her. “You see the best in every person and every situation, Six, that’s who you are. Just because he can’t live up to those expectations doesn’t mean you should second guess yourself. You’re not naive. You’re optimistic and loyal and you lead with love, always.He’sa fool if he can’t recognize what you guys have and lets you slip through his fingers.”

“Who’s a fool?” Rogue asks, stepping into our area.

“Hey, babe,” Bellamy says, jumping excitedly to her feet and hugging him.

Rhys follows closely on his heels, entering the VIP area just after him, his eyes immediately finding Thayer and softening.

“Hi, love.” He says sweetly, bending over to wrap her in his arms.

Both of them traveled to Paris with their girlfriends this morning but decided to join us later so we could have a bit of a girl’s night.

Selfishly, I have to look away as Phoenix’s two best friends fawn over my friends.

Rhys settles on the couch next to Thayer, throwing his arm over her shoulder and curling her against him as Rogue does the same with Bellamy.

What I would give to have Phoenix do the same with me.

I’ve never felt more single in my entire life, and that’s saying something.

“I see he finally put a ring on it.” Rhys says, nodding at the diamond on my left hand.

I scoff, playing with the ring absentmindedly.

“Yeah, under duress.”

“That sounds like him. He is known for letting other people force him into doing things he doesn’t want to do, after all.” He replies, sarcasm dripping from every word.

“Well, as of tomorrow, we’re done. We’re back to the status quo like it was before we started hooking up and we’ll lead separate lives once we’re married.” I say with a sigh, taking another long drink. “So, I guess you’re right about that.”

“What makes you think it’s over?” Rhys asks, frowning.

I meet his gaze. “He’s not here, is he?”

“He’ll come.” Rogue tells me.

He says it like it’s an inevitability.

All heads turn towards him as Bellamy asks, “How do you know that?”

He looks down at her lustfully for a moment before speaking his response directly to me. “Because that’s what he does. It doesn’t matter where he is, what he’s doing, or how important it is; wherever you go, he’ll follow. And he’ll drop everything to do it.”

I shake my head. “No, he won’t.”

He had the opportunity to do just that at the airport this morning, and he walked away instead.

It’s his turn to sigh. “He found you in Baroque when you were flirting with that fucker.” He argues, counting off his fingers on the hand resting over Bellamy’s shoulder. “He flew to Hong Kong for a day, basically so he could watch you order lunch while he hid behind a tree. Just last week, he showed up at your parents’ house even though he’d sworn to never set foot back there for anything other than familial business obligations. Fuck, if you want me to go a level deeper, he chose to attend RCA. Remind me again, how many generations of your family have gone to our school to date? You’ve known since you were born that you would come here, right? We all knew that about you. And yet he still chose to come here, to be near you, even though he supposedly hated you back then. That’s just naming a few, but I can keep going if you want.”

As he speaks, Bellamy turns towards me with her hand on her heart and her lower lip jutted out, a cute expression on her face.

He continues. “He’ll come because you’re Sixtine and he’s Phoenix and healwayscomes for you. You have no idea the things he’d be willing to do for you. If it makes you feel any better, I think he’s just figuring it out for himself.”

The tears I’ve been holding back since I got to France come back with a vengeance, stinging at the corners of my eyes.

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