Page 135 of Destined To Fall

“Okay? I’m going to need a little more than that, Vee. What do you want?”

I have no fucking clue.“Send it. Permanently.”

Laura sits there,blinking at me for a few beats before picking up her cell. The weighted silence between us makes the clicks on her phone sound infinitely louder. I feel each one of them in my chest. A few buttons and some sneaky side-eye glances at me later, and she’s raising her face to look at me fully.

“Done?”

She presses one last button, and I hear the whoosh of the email sending.“Done.”

And just like that, ten years of sweat and blood…done.Over.

Before I know what’s happening, Laura has moved to sit on the floor with me, and I’m wrapped in a bone-crushing hug. After a few long minutes, she asks the question I’ve been dreading.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know, Law. At first it was nothing, just an amusement, one that came out of nowhere. I meant to, honest. I had every intention of telling you when you got back from your work trip, and we’d have a good laugh about it. But I don’t know what happened.”

Laura releases me, gets to her knees, and presses a lingering kiss to my forehead.

“You know you’re welcome to rot here and lick your wounds for as long as you need to. I love you, whoreface.” She gets to her feet and pauses.“I guess I’m going to have to think of something else to call you from now on…” And with that, she heads to bed, leaving me with said wounds to lick.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“Okay, enough with the couch potato. You’re actually making a permanent indent in it,” Laura greets me, dumping her fancy-pants briefcase on the coffee table.

“You calling me fat?”

“If the sweatpants don’t fit.” I look down at the sweats I am in fact wearing and the crumbs still sitting on my boobs from lunch and wrinkle my nose.

“Fair. I’ll book into a hotel and get out of your way.”

“That’s not what I mean, numbnuts.” Taking my feet in her hands, she lifts them up and slides in under them.“You’ve been moping for over a week. Time to get your shit together, woman. You’re Vivienne fucking Carmichael. You don’t mope over anything.”

“She’s long gone, her body left in an alley.” And her soul in a bed with a boy.“Nothing left.”

“Then it’s time to find who you are without it. Perfect time for reinvention. Who do you wanna be? What do you wanna do now?” I can see the wheels turning in her head, the spreadsheets she’s creating, the Venn diagrams and brain mapping. It’s enough to make me wanna puke.

“I don’t know how to be or do anything else.”

“That’s a big fat lie, and you know it. Jesus, Vee. You have a brain. Useit.”

“Shut up. You’re supposed to be my friend. My best freaking friend, I might add.”

“Babe, I’m your only fucking friend.” My heart twists painfully at her words. For a little while, she would have been wrong.“You miss him, don’t you?” I feel my lip tremble, but I refuse to let the emotion overwhelm me.

“Who?”

“Real cute, Vee. Real cute.”

“Then don’t ask stupid fucking questions you already know the goddamn answer to!” I yell, getting to my feet.

“Then do something about it!” she yellsrightback.

“Like what? What the fuck am I supposed to do, huh? If you’re so smart and all-knowing, what the fuck do I do now? Because the way I see it,”—I pause, shaking my head—“I’ve got nothing.”

“Nothing?Nothing?I call bullshit. You still have cards to play. Make the call, Vee.”

“What?”

---