Nothing Good Gets Away

Chapter 37

ROWAN BASS

I've been parked outside of Sienna's apartment complex for sixteen minutes, and counting. She called me this morning again, and this time I actually answered now that I'm in the loop as to what's going on. I tried convincing myself that it's not my problem and that she can figure it out all on her own, but I made the mistake of consulting my mother for advice. She told me to go see her, like a decent person would.

As if I'm meditating, I close my eyes and take slow, deep breaths with my fingertips pressed to my temples. The only way I know I'm going to get through this is if I go in there with a clear mind. No grudges, no hard feelings. All I have to do is channel Elise Bass, and I'm good to go.

Mumbling to myself, I snatch my bag from the front seat and push my way out of my car. I listen to the sound of my boots scuffing on the sidewalk, quickening my pace to catch the door to her building when a man leaves. While waiting for the elevator, I anxiously shake my leg and count the seconds to keep my mind occupied. It's funny, or maybe wildly depressing, that I'm actually scared to see someone that I've known my entire life and used to see as a sister.

As the doors slide open, I move aside to let two girls come out together. I step in after them and tap the button to close the door about six times before I hit Sienna's floor. I run my fingers through my hair, and I look down at my outfit of a t-shirt dress, and boots, wondering what kind of comment she's going to make about it.

The doors open again, and I make some kind of muffled whining sound as I force myself out into the hallway. I straighten my posture, and I nod to myself like this whole thing is going to be fine, and that my anxiety is just in my head.

I knock on the door and wait for less than a minute before Sienna opens up for me in a pair of shorts and a cropped white tank top. Her face is bare of any makeup, which is rare unless we're going to yoga or something. Even then, she has a strategic no-makeup-makeup routine for that.

"Hey," she smiles tightly and steps aside to let me in.

"Hi," I needlessly adjust my bag over my shoulder and slowly walk into her open floor plan of an apartment. It's clean, nothing seems out of the ordinary.

"Do you want, like, water or something?"

"Oh, sure," I sit on her couch and watch her open her fridge. She pulls out two bottles of Fiji water and walks them over to sit with me. "Thanks."

"Mhm," she unscrews hers as I do, and we both take a few sips. "Thanks for coming. I just really needed to talk to you about something."

"Yeah, um...sorry that I didn't answer for you this past weekend. I was with my boyfriend, and I just–"

"You have a boyfriend?"

Here we go.

"I do," I take another sip. "We met at my parents' Christmas Eve party."

"Wow," she nods like she's impressed, and I wait for her to make a snarky comment about it. "Congrats."

I swallow her obvious bitter tone and choose to ignore it. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

She relaxes back against the couch, hugging her knees to her chest. "My dad's company is about to go under, so he's filing for bankruptcy. And my parents cut me off entirely, all of my accounts are completely empty. And Grant broke up with me last week."

The only surprise there is that Grant broke up with her, although I'm not sure why that's even something to mention. She cheated on him, he cheated on her, they got back together, and apparently, they broke up. Anyone could have guessed that's what would happen.