Page 27 of Revive

“I saw you with Bethany today.”

He lets his body clumsily slump down until he’s next to me, our shoulders touching. “And?”

His voice is harsh and hurt, but I stick to the plan. “She’s better for you than me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She would have sex with you tomorrow if you want it.”

“Why are we talking about this again?” He buries his head in his hands and growls, “I’ve fucking told you I don’t care.”

“All guys care.”

“I don’t. I don’t. I don’t,” he shouts. “We just admitted our feelings. We’ve been happy. I’ve been happy. We have the whole summer ahead of us. Fuck. I told you I want to marry you.”

“I know. I know,” I cry. “But that is so far away from now. Who knows what will happen between now and then, and who we’ll meet, and who we’ll want.”

Bending his knees, he rests his arms across the top and tilts his head to the side, to look at me. A sheen of tears cover his eyes, and I realise I’m making the biggest mistake of my life.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you,” he whispers. “But I fucking love you, Sasha. I’m going to give you whatever stupid space you need to get over this ridiculous bullshit that’s going through your head.” He gets up and walks away from me, each step another crack in both our hearts. “But in two days, you better be on my doorstep, because I have the best life planned for us, and I can’t do any of that without you.”

8

Taylah

Throwing my laptop bag on my desk, I kick off my heels, and flop back into my desk chair. It’s hump day and pretty much the end of everyone else’s work day. Grateful to be out of court, even if it means overtime in paperwork, I grab a pen and begin to organise my to-do-list.

“Oh hey,” Emerson calls out, stopping mid-stride. She’s got her bag on her shoulder, ready to go home. “I thought I was going to miss you again. How was your day?”

“Wish it was better.”

“That bad, huh?”

Covering my eyes, I take a few deep breaths and stop myself from having a mini-meltdown. As much as I love my job, some days the unfairness of the world hits me a little too hard. There are too many kids who need protecting and too many restrictions on how much support I can give them.

“Why don’t you worry about this paperwork tomorrow? We can wind down, have a few drinks and dinner across the road.”

Looking at the paperwork that surrounds me, I mentally calculate how many extra hours I’ll have to put in this week to finish it.

“You know you want to,” Emerson teases.

“You’re right. Fuck it.” I toe the inside of my heels, slipping the rest of my feet in and stand up. I do an awkward shimmy on the spot, straighten up my clothes and grab my handbag. “Let’s get this show on the road. My favourite chicken schnitzel is waiting for me. See you, bitches,” I call out to an empty office, before joining Em in an empty elevator.

“You letting the future husband know you won’t be home for dinner?”

“He’s not my husband,” Emerson retorts. Finishing her text, she drops the phone back in her bag, her attention back on me.

“Don’t act like you’re going to be marrying anyone else.” She smiles, and I know she’s imagining herself in a wedding dress, walking down the aisle to her man. If I didn’t love her so much, I’d probably make fun of how romantic and cheesy her life has become.

“He wasn’t going to be home tonight anyway. He stayed back at thePCYCwith Drix, they’re training some of the kids from the youth centre. Boosting up his volunteer hours.”

“How is that sexy brother of his?” I keep the tone of my voice as neutral as possible, playing it cool. Like I haven’t been thinking about him since he dropped me off at home on Sunday morning.

“I actually thought you would know, I haven’t spoken or seen him since you guys left on Sunday. Tonight is the first time Jagger has seen Drix since then too.” The conversation stalls as we concentrate on crossing the road, and getting seated in the bistro-style establishment as quickly as possible.

Leading us straight to our favourite booth, Ben, one of the regular waiters, pulls out his mini tablet, ready to take our order. “The usual ladies?”

“Yes, please Ben,” Emerson responds. We’ve been coming here for the last five years, only changing our orders when the menu itself has changed.

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