Page 64 of Your Secret to Keep

I hate thinking about how Lia’s feelings were hurt tonight. It’s like getting the wind knocked out of me while trying to catch my breath. I didn’t think there was any harm in keeping Rebecca’s texts to myself—I literally never engaged—but maybe that was wrong?

I go over the whole situation and the key points shine in my brain, like, “Hey, asshole. Don’t forget about this!” And I do feel like an asshole. There’s no part of me that ever thought Rebecca would show up like this, or that she’d sneak through the lack of security guards to get to me.

I kick my own ass until I’m pulling in front of Lia’s apartment. From here I see her door is cracked open and my heart clenches in my chest. That isn’t right. She would never leave it open.

Jogging to it, I knock before calling out, “Lia? You in there?” No one answers so I push it open cautiously and look around.

Water. Everywhere. Her apartment is flooded.

I see Lia standing near her bed with her arms crossed.

“Hey. It’s Brooks.” I announce myself one more time because I don’t want to scare her.

Once I’m in her room, I look up at what Lia’s fixated on. The ceiling broke open and water is still coming down. Debris covers her bed. Fuck.

I lightly touch the side of her arm, standing in front of her. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes gut me. Rimmed with red, they’re a stark contrast to her pale skin. When she doesn’t say anything, I grip her tightly and move her away from the bed. There’s still a chance that more, or even the rest, of the ceiling could collapse, and we shouldn’t be standing here if it does.

Tears run down her face, mixed with water from the flooding, and this hurts me.

“Lia, did you call anyone? Are you hurt?”

As I ask, firefighters come in and immediately start assessing the situation. They only take a few looks around before turning to us. “Whose apartment is this?” one of the men asks.

“Mine,” Lia croaks out. It’s another haymaker to the body that almost brings me to my knees.

“We need to get you out of here. I can give you a minute to grab a bag of some things you need. We’re running out of time.”

Lia doesn’t move. She stares at the firefighter, who then looks to me.

I turn and face her. “Lia, you need to pack a bag,” I repeat.

She doesn’t say anything but moves to the bathroom, collecting a few things. When she emerges with a bag, her next stop is a laundry basket on the couch—it looks like clean laundry needing to be folded. I watch her grab whatever she can from the basket.

Lia sets the bag she packed, her work bag, and purse on the kitchen counter.

Someone walks in, and it appears to be the landlord.

“Fuck. This is bad,” he whines with no tact at all. “We turned the water off to the building.” He looks at Lia as one of the firefighters gets out of the way, in time for her twinkly lights to fall with part of the ceiling nearthe hole. “Lia, you obviously can’t stay here. I can call you once we get this situated, but that might be a few days. Do you have somewhere you can stay?” the landlord asks.

She doesn’t say anything.

“Yes,” I jump in. “She can stay with me.”

Lia’s head whips to me so fast, her eyebrows scrunched in confusion. The water stops coming through the ceiling, but another piece falls.

“Okay, time to go,” a firefighter insists as he directs everyone outside. I grab one of Lia’s bags while she takes the others. Once we’re outside, the firefighters and the landlord dive into a deep conversation about what to do. They leave Lia and I standing outside her door.

“Let’s go to my place,” I suggest, tipping my head to where my car is parked.

“No.” It’s the first time she’s spoken to me.

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I don’t need your help. You can go,” she answers flatly, her face blank and still turned toward the door. Her arms are crossed and her shoulders are by her ears.

I sigh heavily. “Lia, let me explain. Tonight was not what it looked like. And if you think I’m fucking leaving you out here, you’re wrong.”

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