Page 55 of Creed

“How was your day?”

“You mean, how was the dickwad at school today?”

Thedickwadis a boy in Sylvie’s class who’s trying to get her attention by doting on her. And by doting, I meandoh-ting. I imagine the definition of ‘smitten’ to have his picture beside it with hearts for eyes.

“Is having a seat saved for you at lunch and doors opened for you so bad?”

“Bitch, please,” she says, and I spit out my water as I sit up with a laugh. “Independent, strong women don’t need a man to do things for them.”

“True.” I smile. “It’s nice, though, sometimes, especially when they show you they care; having someone dote on you.”

She huffs. “Is that why you ditched whoever’s ass, Soph? Because they didn’t dote on you?”

Creed had doted on me; he worshipped me, actually.

He loved taking care of me, whether it was aftercare with sex, washing my body and hair in the morning, or making our meals while I studied. That week with him had been amazing. Magical. It’s unfathomable how, in that short time, I fell ass over tea kettle in love with a man I hardly knew.

Maybe it was love at first sight if that existed. But whatever the rationale is, it doesn’t matter because it had happened.

And it was doomed from the start.

“Are you there, Soph? Earth to Sophie.”

“Yeah, you little turd-nugget, I’m here. And no, I didn’t ditch someone because they didn’tdoteon me. I didn’t ditch anyone.”

“Don’t lie to me. That’s a sin. Both a God sin and a cousin sin.”

Shit, she pulled the ‘cousin sin’ card.

“We…” I bite my lip to stop it from quivering. “We just weren’t compatible,” I admit to her, not hiding that my hurt and sadness lately is because of a romance wound.

I squeeze my eyes shut because what I’d just said was a lie, AKA a cousin sin. Creed and I are compatible in every way. We’re so right for each other… except for who our families are.

“What I mean is, we… we could never work,” I finally settle on.

The need to talk to someone chokes me. I can’t talk to Ollie because I can’t reveal who I was involved with. I can’t talk to Zacfor the same reason, plus I’m a hypocrite regarding the advice I still insist he needs to follow. I can’t talk toAbuela,nor does Antonio feel like a safe option. And I certainly can’t talk to my almost thirteen-year-old cousin.

Especially if I might be pregnant.

“Is that why you’re so sad, Soph?” she whispers. “You love them, but it’s like… forbidden? Like Romeo and Juliet?”

Soulmates. Star-crossed lovers. Families—at least one family—who will never understand or accept it.

That about sums it up.

I blink my sudden tears away. “Something like that.”

“That sucks.” She sounds aghast. “You deserve to be happy. Just like you always say, we deserve to be happy and to make choices that help enable that.”

“Youdodeserve to be happy.”

“You do, too.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I know I do.”

“Then what’s one thing you’ll do today to work toward that?”

I chuckle at her drill-sergeant-slash-motivational-speaker tone.

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