Page 24 of Kiss Me Again

"What is going on?" I finally dare to speak, recovering a bit.

Ben turns to face me again.

"I saw you kissing," Di explains before Ben manages to say anything. "At that party."

"You did?" I'm shocked. She never gave me any hint that she knew about it. I thought Di was incapable of keeping secrets, especially from me.

"And I told him to stay away from you," she adds. My jaw drops in surprise. "I told him that if he screws it up, then you'd stop being my friend because we're siblings, so if he does that, I'm not going to talk to him till the end of his life."

I look at Ben, and his face expresses sadness mixed with...guilt?

"Is that correct?" I ask after a pause. "You ghosted me because you were afraid that Di would stop talking to you?"

"Of course not," Ben chuckles and takes both of my hands in his. "She's my sister; I knew I wouldn’t really lose her because even when she's mad, she always forgives me."

Di scoffs in response but does not argue. She knows it's true.

"She scared me," Ben continues, stepping closer and standing against me. "She said that if we started dating and broke up, she'd lose you forever. And that meant I would lose you forever." He swallows, his voice trembling as he speaks. "I knew it would be better to not talk to you, ghost you, and leave you unaware than lose you forever. I couldn't lose you; I can't. But then I was too afraid to start something serious with you. And now I know why: because I love you."

My eyes are wet and blurry with tears. I can't believe I'm on the verge of crying when the man of my dreams confesses that he's in love with me.

"I love you too," I say with a smile, and the first tear falls down my cheek.

"Come here." Ben wipes my tear with his palm and grabs me in his arms as he presses his lips to mine for a kiss.

"Oh, guys, you're so sweet," Di says, and we both start laughing. "I didn't know that you loved each other; in that case, I wouldn't interrupt...anything that was going on there. Go"—she waves at us—"go have sex."

All three of us laugh, and I can't believe this is happening for real.

"Wait..." Ben frowns at his sister. "Why are you here this early? A couple of days ago, you called and said you were going to stay in New York for another week."

"Well, yeah, change of plans." She grimaces to show that it's complicated. "I got the part, but I refused to take it."

"You what?!" We both ask the same question, looking at Di as if she's out of her mind.

"Yeah." She nods, sipping my coffee. "It turned out that the producer of that movie is James's father."

My jaw drops again. "Thunderstone?" I clarify to make sure I got it right.

"Yeah, Thunderstone, my ex." She nods and exhales as if telling us that it's too complicated to explain.

"What happened? Did he say something to his father about you?" Ben asks.

"No, Celia was there, and it pissed me off," she says, and I gasp in surprise. Ben places his hand on my knee to calm me down.

Di was only in love once, and James broke her heart when he cheated on her with Celia Underwood. We don't know for sure if he did; Celia spread the rumor, and while he always denied it, Di couldn't forgive him, much less forget about it.

"Please, tell me everything," I beg, looking at her with hope and pressing my palms together as if in prayer.

I take the second cup—Ben's coffee—and start drinking it because Di is drinking mine. Or she's drinking Ben's, I'm not sure; he always orders the same coffee that I like because I'm addicted, and I always drink mine at first and then take his.

Di looks at Ben and raises an eyebrow in a silent question.

"Okay, I got it; you girls need to talk." Ben gets up from the chair. "I'll go get dressed and get myself a coffee since somebody drank mine."

We’re not paying attention to him anymore anyway. Di starts talking. "I decided to go to Vancouver to win my part in the movie back" is the first thing she says, and I widen my eyes in surprise.

"I'm still here!" Ben yells from the other room. "Don't say anything about Vancouver if you don't want to piss me off."

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