Page 125 of Don't Let Me Go (Don't Let Me 2)

I roll my eyes. “You two make me sick. You know that, right?”

“But the good kind of sick.” Ash winks. “Speaking of which, how are…things?”

With a scoff, I mutter, “Subtle, Ash.”

“I’m just saying…” Her voice trails off, and she lifts her hands in defense.

Mia and Ash exchange glances and Mia announces, “I’ll get the alcohol. You ask the questions.”

“Mia,” I whine.

“Hush.” Ash pats my knee. “Now, where were we? Oh. Right. Colt may have mentioned how miserable––”

“Stop,” I beg. “Seriously, I can’t hear about him.”

“He misses you,” Mia interrupts from the kitchen. “Even stopped by SeaBird so he could ask me how you’re doing.”

“He did?”

“Uh, yeah,” Ash answers. “And it was super adorable and pathetic all at once.”

I nibble my lower lip. Finally giving in to my curiosity, I ask, “And what’d you guys say?”

“I lied and said you’re doing awesome,” Mia replies, setting down a trio of wine glasses onto the kitchen counter and searching for the wine opener in the drawer. “Although, I have a feeling Colt might’ve spilled the beans about your misery ‘cause he didn’t look too convinced. But Ash is right. He looked miserable when we saw him.”

“Good,” I decide. “He deserves to be.”

“Just tell me this,” Ash starts. “Is there a world where you’d forgive him? Where you’d give him another chance?”

It’s a question I’ve been asking myself since I closed the door in his face. But it’s hard. Complicated. And even if I did overreact, the idea of starting a relationship that already has baggage and tacking on long-distance? It sounds miserable.

But I’m already miserable, so…

I sigh and puff out my cheeks, unsure how to answer. “I don’t know.”

“It isn’t a no,” Mia quips, pouring dark red wine into three goblets on the kitchen island.

“It isn’t a yes, either,” I mutter.

“I think you should,” Ash decides. “I saw the spark between you two. And even though you’ve been keeping yourself busy with school and the charity, we’ve still noticed how down you’ve been.”

“We’ve also noticed how few parties have been happening at the Taylor House since Theo had his heart broken,” Mia chimes in.

“He was an asshole,” I tell them, but I’m not sure who I’m reminding anymore.

Especially when I found a career path I love so much more than anything I’d been doing before the charity fell into my lap. It’s crazy. How quickly my world was turned upside down, and I can’t help but feel like it was for the better, despite my fear when letting it go…in every way except for one.

“All men have their moments,” Ash says, bringing me back to the present. “It’s whether or not they can make up for their assholery and make the changes to not let it happen again that makes them worth it.”

Balancing three filled-to-the-brim glasses in her hands, Mia walks over to us and gives a goblet to me and Ash, then lifts her own into the air. “To assholes.”

Ash and I join her, clicking our glasses together. “To assholes.”

Then, I drink the whole thing down.

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