No One Else

Chapter 3

"Well?" she asked.

"Don't worry; I sent him home hours ago."

She sat on my bed. "Sorry I got weird earlier."

"It's okay. Things feel very strange between us."

"How so?"

"Nothing is the same," I said.

"Of course things aren't the fucking same, Elle. He was seconds away from—"

"Why did you give me his letters yesterday if this is how you were going to react?" It came out a little more shrill than intended; Lily recoiled a bit.

"I'm sorry. I'm still angry," she said.

"I am too, but I want to try to work things out with him, and you promised you'd support me."

"Doesn't mean I have to support him."

"Lily."

She rolled her eyes. "I told him that night I'd never forgive him. He knows where he stands with me."

I pushed up from my desk and stood before her. "You're my best friend. You moved across an ocean with me. You've been right by my side every second since the day we met. I'm asking you to at least be cordial with him."

Her eyes were mere slits. "He's lucky I love you."

"Remember that because I have one more bomb to drop on you."

"Were you lying when you said you didn't sleep with him?" she asked, mouth hung open.

"No! He's not getting that anytime soon. I, well, we...we're going to look for a place together, like, officially."

"Live with me and Rob."

"That's absurd."

"It's not. You can take your time; you don't need to move in with him right away," she said as she placed her hands on my shoulders.

"We need to keep moving forward. If nothing else, this will be a true test of whether or not things are going to work."

"This is a terrible idea, Elle."

She dropped her hands to her sides as I turned from her and headed towards my bedroom door. "I'm making dinner."

"You're just full of terrible ideas tonight."

"Then come help me. You and Rob deserve to have the time to live together and not have me tagging along. I know what's best for me, and I'll deal with the consequences later if I need to."

"You've changed a lot over the last few weeks."

"Good or bad?" I asked.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Not sure yet. I've never seen you both so resolute and so willing to leave fate to its own devices."

I just shrugged my own shoulders back at her. Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew for certain was that I wanted to try my damnedest to make things work with Jude, and that meant both of us being vulnerable to the uncertain.

***

The following morning I opened my office door to find a vase of two dozen white roses sitting on my desk. I was instantly brought back to the first time Jude sent flowers, and my heart made that little fluttering movement I'd missed so much.

I dug through the flowers to find the card bearing Jude's message: "Dinner at your place on Friday? x -Jude"

After my eyes nearly tumbled into the back of my head, I pulled out my phone to text him. "I see you've gotten comfortable enough to invite yourself over for dinner ;) thanks for the flowers."