Page 8 of That One Moment

“She’s nice.” I’m not about to barrel into a discussion about how my parents shouldn’t have gotten divorced in the first place, about how my dad wrecked their marriage and how this is all so fucking unfair. Instead I add, “But she has a son who is….” He’s what? Annoying? Charming? Stupidly attached to my twin? Sointriguing and gorgeous, I want to hate him because that’s the safest reaction?

Fuck no, what? Jamie is neither of those things.

“Take a breath, Caiden, before I have to call a nurse to check your blood pressure,” Margery says with a pat on my knee. I look at her wrinkled skin that tells stories of a life lived then back at her, meeting her kind gaze.

“I just don’t like him. My twin does though, and they spend all their time together.” I know I sound like a petulant child when those words come out.

“So you’re jealous? That’s reasonable. Just get over it.”

My mouth opens like a fish gasping for air before I scoff. “That’s all the advice you have for me? Get over it?”

She shrugs and it’s so fucking endearing that I want to wrap her in a huge hug.

“He’s not going anywhere, your twin is obviously happy. Hate him in silence if you have to. But there’s really nothing you can do. Maybe learning to accept his presence in your space is the only option.” She shrugs again before adding, “I never said I was good at advice but the way I see it, you say you don’t like him but you’re giving him a lot of power over your feelings.”

God, if only this sweet old lady knew how powerfully my feelings control me.

“You really do suck at this advice thing.” I shake my head then lean back and close my eyes. The sun shines brightly behind my closed lids and I sit, letting stillness settle in my soul. Even if it’s bound to be short lived and the darkness that threatens to drown me will soon creep back in.

For now, this stillness is the calm I need.

Chapter Four

Jamie

An instrumental rendition ofPerfectby Ed Sheeran plays as I take my mum’s arm in mine, marveling at how beautiful she looks in her pink satin wedding gown. Her eyes are glossy and her cheeks tinged pink, her blonde hair falling in ringlets down her bare back.

“Ready?” I ask and she nods, sniffing and dabbing a handkerchief below her eyes.

“So ready. I love him more than I ever thought possible.”

I smile at her, hoping with all of my heart that this marriage sticks and that Duncan is the love she has been looking for since that day my dad stopped loving her. Time and time again she’s brushed off her heartbreak. Now, as I look at her and then at a teary Duncan at the end of the aisle, I hope that whether she is right or wrong in her view of love, that they last a lifetime.

Unshed tears glisten in Duncan’s blue eyes as he takes in my mother’s beauty. Next to him, Cooper is smartly dressed in a black tuxedo and pink bowtie, his black rimmed glasses makinghis blue eyes stand out. He looks exceptionally attractive and I shake my head to dispel the thought because now is not the time to be thinking about my attraction towards the man. The longer I look at him though, the more my thoughts circle around how fucking gorgeous he is.

Caiden is nowhere to be seen. We were all well aware that he didn’t want this wedding to happen, his loyalty lying very much with his mother. I don’t know their story other than that she left them when they were ten. Though he lives in the large four bedroom house my mum and Duncan moved into shortly before the wedding - his own mother claiming she doesn’t have room for him - my mum says they hardly see him. He barely speaks to his father and when he is home, he stays locked up in his room with only his cat for company.

Neither Cooper nor I live with them - living instead in dorms on the university campus, but we do eat there at least twice a week and then, I get nothing but the odd grunt and dagger-like glares. The only person he has time for is Cooper.

So am I surprised that he didn’t show today? Not at all. Disappointed but not surprised. A part of me thought that in the almost three months since we met and in the one since our parents moved in together, that he’d have adapted to the thought of our blended family - but I guess not.

My gaze flits from Cooper to Duncan and to the empty spot where Caiden should be standing at the altar. When Cooper meets my eyes, he shrugs, chewing on his bottom lip but then smiles when he looks at my mum.

I don’t hold his brother's actions against him - they're not the same person and he isn’t Caiden’s keeper, no matter how hard he tries to be. Handing my mum over to a teary Duncan, I kiss her cheek then take my place at her side.

To love, honour and treasure, they promise each other. Forever and always. They share their own vows and kiss under an arch of pink and white roses.

Cooper wears a goofy grin as he watches the happy couple and when he catches me staring at him, a flash of pink spreads across his cheeks. I dip my head, a smile settling on my face, and when he returns it, my pulse stutters, sending my heart into overdrive.

Caiden’s absence at the wedding doesn’t go unnoticed. When Cooper is accosted to answer yet another relative about his twin's whereabouts, I swoop in and take his arm, excusing him by pretending our parents want to see us, then hurry him out of the lavish ballroom and down the hallway, running with my hand on his arm.

He laughs as we slow down, panting as we dip into a storage closet and close the door behind us. We’ve grown closer these past few months, having dinner together on campus some nights and seeing each other when we go for family meals. He’s fun to be around, always full of stories and facts about anything and everything. He laughs without restraint, and when he smiles at me? When he smiles, my entire world spins like I’m stuck on a carousel that’s out of control. My heart beats wildly against my ribcage, blood pulses hotter in my veins and my entire body lights up with a thrum of excitement.

I am so gone for this boy.

“Thank you for that.” Cooper motions in the general direction of the ballroom. “I can’t tell you how many aunts, uncles and old neighbours have asked where Caiden is. I hate lying forhim but telling them he’s not here because he and my father have…..issues seems like a bit of a mood killer.”

I lean against the wall while Cooper fiddles with an unlit candle he found on one of the shelves. The room is dimly lit, one single light bulb shining down on us.

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