Page 85 of Roses in Summer

Olivia:She just ordered shots.

Olivia:I’ll kill her if she throws up at my job, Seraphina. I swear to God.

Olivia:Come get your sister.

Olivia:Never mind, she just left.

Concerned, I swipe up from the thread and click on Bianca’s contact icon, bringing the phone to my ear as I wait for her to answer her phone. After three rings, my sister’s voice slurs over the line.

“Are you calling to yell at me?”

“Where are you?” I ask, my voice worried.

“In our apartment with Kev.”

“Who is— You know what? Doesn’t matter. You’re safe?”

“Yes, Mom. I’m safe. But go to Olivia’s bar. She seemed bitchier than normal,” Bianca says with a note of lucidity before hanging up. Lowering my phone, I scowl at the device.

“Of all the annoying things she has ever done,” I mutter, shaking my head as I continue walking through the library and out the front doors. My mind is still on Olivia’s texts and my sister hanging up on me as I cross the parking lot.

It’s not until I’m in front of my car, keys in hand, that I realize I’m not alone. As soon as I register the sounds coming from behind me, the heavy footsteps following me stop, and I grip my handle, pulling my door open just as I hear a voice that haunts me in every nightmare I’ve had since I was eighteen years old.

“Long time no see, Fin.”

32

Lincoln

When Seraphina told me she was going to Legends tonight, I couldn’t help laughing at the full-circle moment.

As soon as I turned twenty-one, the first one of my friends because my parents decided to have me start kindergarten a year late, I would go to Legends by myself for a beer and to meet women who wanted nothing more than a quick fuck. When the guys were old enough to join me, they did the same shit I did: drink beer, meet women, repeat.

But then, Grey met Ava, and things changed. Dante fell not soon after with CeCe, and then I was the last man standing. Until Seraphina Rose walked into that party, and then I was just as fucked as them. Except not literally because she lived over forty minutes away and ended all correspondence after six weeks of constant contact to go back to Mitch. It doesn’t matter that I now know why she did it; thinking about it still pisses me off.

I wasn’t lying when I told Sera that I would drown at Legends to escape her memory and all thoughts and mentions of her. And that’s why walking into the overly decorated college bar with collegiate jerseys and memorabilia on the walls feels almost like coming home. Or maybe it’s the petite brunette in all white swaying on the stool that makes it feel like home.

Wait— Why is she swaying?

My eyes narrow on Seraphina’s form, moving wobbly on the stool in front of her friend, who I assume to be the fabled Olivia I’ve heard so much about. A shot glass and a fat margarita sit in front of her, and I can’t help but think that there’s something off with the scene in front of me. Olivia’s face is set in a worried frown as Seraphina reaches forward for the shot glass before throwing it back, tilting her head to the point where she nearly falls off the stool from her imbalance.

“What the fuck?” Done with observation, I stride over to Seraphina and steady her body, letting her weight fall against me as I grab her shoulders and prevent her from falling. “What’s wrong, ciern?”

“Oh!” She hiccups, pitching forward and catching herself on the bar. “What are you doing here?” Her words are coherent but possess the slow drawl of someone who’s had just a bit too much alcohol.

“I’m here for you.” I keep my eyes on her flushed face, enjoying how the pink in her cheeks deepens to red.

“What about Jenny? No, June? Wrong—” She shakes her head, eyebrows furrowed as she tries to recall the name of a woman who never had a chance.

“Gemma.” She snaps her fingers. “Weren’t you with her today?”

I raise a brow at her question, both liking and annoyed with how forthcoming she is in her tipsy state. “Were you gossiping at brunch, ciern?”

She shakes her head rapidly, her eyes wide. “Celeste may have mentioned it.”

“Hmm,” I hum, squeezing her shoulders lightly. “She picked up the last of her things today.”

“Did you burn your bed?”

---