Page 51 of Ever After

Another ping comes through my phone.

Aiden’s timing is always so impeccable.

Out of breath and sweaty,I reach the top floor of Lia’s apartment with a pile of flat moving boxes ready to be made up and other supplies in bags hanging off my arms.

I seriously need to work out again. I bang my foot on her door for her to open it just as Lia swings the door open.

“Move!” I take two steps into her apartment and throw the boxes and bags on the floor.

“Geez. You look like hell.”

“Shut up. You just had to live on the hundredth floor.”

“I didn’t want to hear people on top of me. And it’s the third floor. This ghetto place doesn’t have a hundred floors.”

I assume that’s why Lia is so fit—she has to climb three flights of stairs multiple times a day.

Lia grabs a box and starts taping the bottom of it shut. “Let’s start in the kitchen.”

I agreed to help Lia pack so we can get her into my house as soon as possible to help speed things up with Aiden. Her lease isn’t up yet. She has a shitty landlord and doesn’t care about getting her deposit back, so she decided to move in as soon as she could. This apartment is so small, she doesn’t have room for anything. The packing should go fast. Lia goes through her cupboards, throwing food away what she doesn’t want.

“How did Aiden take it when you told him I was moving in?” Lia asks.

“He begged and begged for me to forgive him so he could move back in and we could be a couple again.”

“He’s changing.”

“What do you mean?” I question while walking over to the kitchen. I open the cupboards that hold her dishes, trying to decide where to begin.

“He’s never begged like that before. I didn’t expect him to cheat, either.”

“Me neither.” I pull my phone out of my pocket and play some music. “What do you think of Alex?”

“He’s fun. We had a blast at the bar. I wish you guys would have come with.”

Lia and Alex weren’t home when Jay and I went to bed. We woke up the next morning and found them both passed out on the couch. Our flight was at seven in the morning, so I woke Lia up at four and she wasn’t too happy about it.

“Did you sleep with Alex?”

I didn’t ask her about it on the flight home because she slept the entire time, dead to the world from her hangover.

Lia stops what she’s doing and turns to me. “Did it look like I slept with him? I was so drunk. I barely remember the flight home.” She wraps her arms around her stomach. “Don’t remind me. It was awful flying home; I swear I was half hungover and half still intoxicated. Thinking about it makes me sick. I would rather pay a thousand dollars to change my flight than ever do that again.”

I laugh and turn around to resume packing.

“What’s going on with you and Jay? Things seemed tense when we left for the bar without you guys.”

“You could tell? I felt that it was off, too. That’s part of the reason I stayed back with him, so we could talk. He thinks both of our exes are going to get in the way of us before it even begins. He’s also worried I’ll leave him hanging and he’ll waste his time waiting for me to decide what I want to do.”

“Have you decided what you want to do? The guy likes you, and he doesn’t hide it very well.”

“I know. I feel bad about the position I’m in. What if I decide to be single or what if I decide to give us a chance and my baggage ruins the relationship? But then if I don’t give him a chance, I’m worried I’ll regret it.”

“You’re overthinking it. Just go for it.”

Ever since my talk with Jay, I just keep going back and forth about what I should do. I can’t decide, and with Aiden popping up nonstop, it’s making it even harder. When Jay and I were talking, and Aiden was blowing up my phone, I ended up finding out it was because he planned this whole date night for us to have at home. He decorated the house with candles and rose petals. Then he set up a bed for us in the living room so we could have a sleepover and watch movies all night. We used to do that when we first started dating. Our parents wouldn’t let us have sleepovers, even though we were both over eighteen. We were both still living in our childhood homes, so our parents made the rules. Instead, we would stay up all night and watch movies. Our parents would be so mad the next morning. We would tell them it wasn’t a sleepover because we never went to sleep. We only got away with it a few times before they put an end to it.

That’s when we got our apartment. I was in nursing school and barely ever saw Aiden. Aiden had to work two jobs for us to afford it. It was hard for me to contribute to the bills because of school, but I did what I could with my part-time job; most of that money would go to books and school supplies but Aiden never complained. We were both so tired during that period in our lives. We barely had time for each other. Moving in together assured both of us we would at least see each other every night before we went to bed and we’d see each other every morning. That’s what was important to us.

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