Page 55 of Forever Then

Stepping inside, we find my brother asleep on the couch.

Connor moves quietly around downstairs, taking inventory of every room. Furniture is askew. Lampshades tilted at odd angles. Empty pizza boxes and soda cans litter every surface in sight, and the television screen is paused on a game of Madden, game controllers tossed haphazardly on the coffee table.

I find the culprit of the sound of broken glass from before when I see a picture frame missing off the living room wall. The shattered frame sets on a nearby end table.

I move to head upstairs, but Connor stops me. “Let me check upstairs first.”

He heads to the second floor as I make a pass through the living room, straightening up what I can without making too much noise. I grab a stack of pizza boxes and carry them into the kitchen.

I’m preparing to take out the trash when Connor returns. “Upstairs doesn’t look like it’s been touched.”

I stifle a yawn as he takes the bag from my hand. “I got this. You can go on upstairs and go to bed.” I eye him for a moment. He shouldn’t have to clean this up. “This isn’t your responsibility, Gretch.”

“It’s not yours, either.”

“I know, and trust me, I’m not cleaning this by myself. I’m gonna sleep on the other couch and wake your brother up before dawn to make him do the cleaning.” We share a knowing laugh, before he adds, “I can at least take out this trash, though.”

“Okay,” I say. I turn to head upstairs but stop to face him again before I get too far. “Connor?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for tonight.”

“You’re welcome. Night, Fish.”

When I come downstairsthe next morning, I’m greeted by a spotless house and a vibrant, fully alert, innocent-looking Drew inhaling a bowl of cereal at the kitchen counter. Connor, apparently, has already gone home.

Drew notices me, drops his bowl in the sink and swipes his keys from the counter. “Alright, let’s go. Movie starts at 11:30 and I need to swing by the store to buy a new picture frame.”

With a pep in my step, I happily follow Drew to his car.

Pitch Perfecttwice in one weekend.

Best. Weekend. Ever.

Chapter Twenty-Three

KING OF CHIVALRY

Connor

“You wanna talkthrough the plan for tomorrow?”

She’s not ready to talk about us, but she can’t get out of talking about this. I’ll take her words any way they come as long as she doesn’t keep up this silent treatment.

Gretchen smiles at the waitress as she drops off a Diet Coke refill, before turning to me. “I don’t have a grand plan, really. I was kind of hoping I would know what to do once we get there.”

“And if we get there and you don’t?”

Her body deflates. She hasn’t even met this woman yet and she’s already acting like she’s lost.

“What are you afraid of, Gretch?”

She meets my gaze. “What am I not afraid of? I’m afraid I’ve gone about this all wrong and I should have called first. I’m scared I’ll get there and chicken out and this whole trip will have been a waste. Or I won’t chicken out, I’ll knock on that door and she won’t want anything to do with me?—”

“I don’t think that would hap?—”

“Or,” she emphasizes, cutting me off, “I’ll knock on that door, she’ll hug me and it’ll be everything I dreamed it would be and I’ll have to go home and explain this all to my family—how I did it without including them.” She takes a breath and lowers her voice. “Even if this goes the best it can go, I still end up hurting my family in the end.”

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