Page 128 of All Twerk, No Play

Victoria

Sixmonthsago,I’denvisioned this moment: Alex and I on our triumphant way to Manhattan, leaving this city in the dust and never looking back. But when Alex pulled into traffic, I couldn’t take my eyes off the sideview mirror, where Cruz had stood, shoulder slumped in the parking lot—and I wondered what the hell I was doing.

When I went back upstairs after my dad left that morning, Alex had met my fiery gaze with compassion. “You don’t have to leave, you know.”

But I’d run from my responsibility long enough, it was time to grab my future with both hands—even if that meant letting go of everything else.

I hated the way my voice cracked. “It was my mom’s dream.”

Alex’s eyes flooded with compassion. He pulled me into a hug, tucking my head under his chin. “I already called Grace to discuss going to the City for tomorrow's press conference.”

My cheek rubbed against his chest. “But your life is here.”

“So is yours,” he whispered, his breath moving my hair. I squeezed my eyes shut, my words choking in my throat.

Connor cleared his throat. Alex lifted an arm from my shoulders to tug him closer. Both their bodies wrapped around me as Alex murmured, “You were right, the sign should have said Blackstone, Clarke & McNamara.”

“You know, I’ve always wanted to live in the Big Apple," Connor said.

“No self-respecting New Yorker calls it that,” I said dryly.

“The city so nice, they named it twice,” Connor sing-songed.

I pulled back from their hug, hands on my hips. “Swear to God, Connor, if this is how it’s going to be …”

“Add a clause in my employment agreement to fine me every time I say ‘Gotham,’ ok?”

“Fine doubles if you say it in a Batman voice.”

“Deal,” Connor said in his awful gravel-y voice. I cracked a smile for the first time since I’d walked in the office. Then I gestured to the stack of papers that Dad left behind. “How bad is it?”

“Well,” Alex winced, flipping through the papers and holding up a list of all the properties Richard had left in my name. “You and Cruz will have options for where to live.”

I pressed my fingers into my eyelids, and shook my head slowly. I wasn’t going to drag him into this mess. “I need your help with a property that isn’t on that list.”

Both of their jaws dropped when I explained what I needed before I went home to pack my suitcase, then looked around the condo filled with my fondest memories:

The kitchen where Cruz had unpacked appliances while I wrote that contract, where he’d fed me hangover chilaquiles, where I’d dropped to my knees for him just that morning. I swallowed down a sob seeing the bubble bath and pretzels.

The living room where he’d held me while I confessed the sordid truth about my family—the people I’d have to face without him—and played endless music with him on the piano he’d convinced me to buy because he’d seen the joy it brought me.

The bedroom where I’d slept on his air mattress until he built my furniture, where we’d spent hours making love. The perfect mornings I’d woken up in his arms.

While Alex had wrangled a thrashing Jurisprudence into her cat carrier, I’d taken one final look around, then closed the door to my life with Cruz. I stopped in the superintendent’s office on my way out, leaving an envelope on his desk before going to tell him goodbye.

I held it together until the car turned onto the Northway, then tears pooled in my eyes, dripping silently down my cheeks. From the back seat, Jurisprudence’s howl pierced the silence.

Alex signaled my car into the passing lane. “For the record, I think you’re making a mistake.”

“Noted,” I said crisply, staring out the window.

“And not just about leaving me in charge of our business alone.”

“I didn’t ask your opinion.”

“I’m giving it anyway.”

“Is that why you offered to drive? To criticize me?”

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