Page 85 of Terms + Conditions
“I was scared that my mom would be right.”
“What are you talking about?” Elizabeth’s gaze narrows.
“Every time I tried to talk to Mom about things…she’d tell me to stop whining and be grateful for what I had…before it was gone. Beforeyouwere gone. Enjoy it all while it lasted because one day it would disappear.”
“Josh—“
“She used to remind me I couldn’t mess this up because losing you meant losing everything. And she was right…Elizabeth, you are my everything. I could lose everything else and be okay, but losing you…I’d never recover from that.”
When I meet her gaze, her eyes are full of unshed tears.
Elizabeth clears her throat. “I wish you had told me. We could’ve faced this together. You didn’t have to be alone, Josh. You were always there for me when I needed you most, but you didn’t let me do the same.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I love you, Josh. And, I’m not going anywhere,” she says. “I’m yours.” Elizabeth pulls my mouth to hers but she stops just before they touch. “And you’re mine.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
THEN
October 2024
“I DON’T HAVE TIME for this. I have too much going on and don’t have the patience for a fight with you today,” Elizabeth answers the phone.
I called her earlier, but she didn’t answer, so I called Nick instead. When I hung up with my cousin, I dialed her number again because she was theonlyperson I wanted to talk to about what just happened.
“Hello?” She calls from the other end when I don’t say anything. “Josh,” she sighs. “I don’t have time for games, I—”
“My sister is fucking my best friend.”
“Excuse me?” Elizabeth laughs. “I could almost swear you just said Michaela is sleeping with—”
“Finn, yep.”
“How do you—”
“I just walked in on them.” I scrub my hand down my face, falling onto one of the benches in the courtyard a few blocks from Finn’s condo building.
The last thing I had expected when I knocked on the door of my best friend’s condo was for my little sister to answer the door half-naked this morning. She wasn’t supposed to bethere. She was supposed to be at her condo a few miles north with herhusband, where I’d be meeting her in a few hours for lunch. That was the whole reason I had stayed in New York an extra day. I had work meetings at the beginning of the week to solidify a contract renewal and I was going to leave last night, but Michaela begged me to go to lunch with her today. There was something she justhadto tell me. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined it would be that she’s sleeping with Finn.
I shake out my hand, which still aches from the blow I landed on Finn’s face not even an hour ago. After Michaela answered the door, I couldn’t control myself. I felt hurt, betrayed, and downright furious. My sister was a married woman, what in the hell was Finn thinking? What was she thinking?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not exactly David’s biggest fan, but I’d never condonethis. I lashed out, punching my best friend, and he took it because despite how wrong I was for doing it, he knew he was wrong, too.
“Can you honestly say you’re surprised?” Elizabeth asks.
“You’re not?”
“No,” she says with a small laugh. I can almost see her shaking her head as a smile tugs on the corner of her mouth. “Not at all, actually. Makes a lot of sense when you think about it.”
That’s what Nick said, too. Am I really the only one surprised by this whole thing? I can’t be. Surely, Mom and Dad will be, too. Shit, Mom and Dad…Do they know about this? What am I saying? Of course they don’t.
I can hear her shuffling around in the background and then whispering to someone else. Who in the hell is she with? It’s a Wednesday morning. “Look, I have to go.” Elizabeth sighs. “But Josh, don’t be too hard on her, okay? Your sister doesn’t need judgment right now; she needs support.”
“I wish you were here.” The words tumble out before I can stop them, and maybe I should regret it, but I don’t. It’s true. I wish she was here because she would know what to do and what to say in these situations. Maybe I wouldn’t have punched my best friend if she had been there. Maybe I wouldn’t have accused my sister of cheating on her husband. Maybe I would’ve taken a step back and looked at the bigger picture.
“I uh…I have to go. Just think about what I said, okay? And Josh…Don’t be too hard on your sister. If anyone can understand where she’s coming from right now, I think it might be you.” She doesn’t wait for me to reply before hanging up.
