Page 94 of Dear Ripley

“Ugh. I don’t care about that. Harlow’s gone to talk to Ellie.”

My heart dropped. Morgan’s home was kept relatively warm, but I suddenly felt cold. “She’s done what?”

“Yeah, now you’re interested.” She shook her head as she rolled her eyes, brandishing a letter at me. “She left this.”

I grabbed the note, my eyes running over the minimal text quickly. I groaned. “I can’t believe her. How long do we think she’s been gone?”

“Only a few minutes,” Morgan said, moving away from me now that she was certain I understood the situation. “If you hurry up, we should be able to catch up with her pretty quickly.”

I threw the blankets I had away and rushed to get up, stumbling as I fumbled with my shoes. I wouldn’t usually run out in the street in my pajamas, but sometimes, the situation called for it. Plus, I doubted anyone would be looking at me when Morgan was running around in the world’s most elaborate robe.

In less than a minute, the two of us were practically throwing ourselves out of her apartment. I wasn’t sure whether Morgan had taken my concerns about Ellie seriously, or whether she just went hard on agreements with friends, but she was clearly completely in this. Even if Harlow was choosing to break the deal we had, Morgan was still committed to being there for the confrontation, and I couldn’t be more grateful to her for making sure we both were.

In truth, Harlow would probably be fine without us—and I understood why she’d felt the need to go when Ripley had texted that Ellie was at Petal and Pebble again—but I didn’t want to leave her alone in it all again.

For years, I’d thought it was better to leave her to her relationship. She was still my best friend, what difference did it make if Ellie wasn’t keen on getting to know me? Sure, it would have been nice to be friends, but she wasn’t required to like me. And Harlow hadn’t said anything truly worrying.

Now, I realized I’d been a shit friend, partly because I’d been scared to ruin her relationship like I’d ruined my own, and partly because, in the aftermath of losing Ripley, I’d been scared to be around love.

That was probably why I’d stayed with Gabe. No real risk of love there, just some sort of weird convenience that worked for both of us, but was bound to crash and burn eventually. And without any of the despair breaking up with Ripley had come with.

This time, though, no matter what was going on with me and Ripley—even if she burned my latest letter in front of me while yelling that she hated me—I was going to be there for Harlow. I was going to do better in every aspect of my life, and that was going to be the first one.

Harlow had either been walking quickly, or Morgan had underestimated how long it took to wake me up because we didn’t manage to catch up with Harlow. However, it didn’t take long for us to make it to Petal and Pebble. Thankfully, they were still there.

Bile bit at my throat when I spotted the two of them through the window as we raced towards the door.

“We’re closed,” Ellie snapped as we charged inside.

I already didn’t like her, but something about the way she claimed the place—Ripley’s place—like she owned it, made me hate her even more. I got the feeling this was a woman who had never accepted being told ‘no.’ The worst kind of people.

“Actually, we’re not,” Ripley corrected, glowering at Ellie from over to the side. “I’ll thank you not to claim my business as your own.”

Pride glowed inside of me. Ripley—fierce, bold, brave Ripley. The one who stood up for what and who she believed in. She was absolutely a goddess.

Ellie rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She looked away from Ripley and her gaze landed on me. “You. What are you doing here?”

Harlow had been standing in the middle of the store, her back to the door, but she turned. After a second, she smiled softly, shaking her head as if she’d been expecting us, but still thought we were ridiculous for running to her side.

She could think I was ridiculous as much as she wanted. I went down with this ship, and I was starting to think Morgan might too. She seemed as fiercely protective and ready to fight as I felt as she stood next to me, anger rolling off her in waves. She always had been the type to care deeply about stuff. I’d forgotten that about her. How much I’d missed in my fruitless quest to forget Ripley…

“Is this your fault?” Ellie asked me when I didn’t reply. “Are you the reason she left me?”

Before I could find my voice through my shock, Harlow scoffed. “Alicia’s got nothing to do with it.”

“So, you didn’t leave me for yourbest friend, who you just can’t live without?” As far as I was aware, Ellie had never been suspicious of my relationship with Harlow. It had been so platonic, I wasn’t sure what there was to be worried about. However, her derisive tone implied she either had been, or she was telling herself a very different narrative than what had happened in some bizarre bid to avoid facing her wrongdoings.

“Jesus Christ,” Harlow sighed, and that was the moment I really knew she was over this whole thing, over Ellie. She sounded bone-deep exhausted with everything, and I knew she wasn’t, but she was clearly done with Ellie. “I left you because you cheated on me. Multiple times, I’ve since found out, so thank you for that. But, did you really think I’d stick around for the person who saw me in pain, losing my child, and, instead of sticking around and being there for me, went off to fuck someone else? It doesn’t work like that.”

Ellie’s nostrils flared. She knew that was the reason, it had come up in the divorce. However, it seemed she hadn’t been expecting Harlow to tell everyone. Even now, she didn’t care about Harlow and the support she might have needed to get through that. She only cared about being embarrassed in front of the rest of us.

Ekundayo appeared at the door to the back, his eyes wide. He’d clearly been listening from within and couldn’t resist sneaking a peek. Luckily, Ellie couldn’t see him.

Ripley had been right to come in today. I didn’t want to think about how things would have gone if he’d been left to deal with all of this alone.

“What about what I needed?” Ellie asked. “I was grieving too.”

“And sleeping with someone else was the way to handle that?” Harlow asked, her voice low and dangerous.

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