The door opens up behind me as I'm waiting for Amy to pack up her dolls. "What are you doing, Amy?" Jess immediately spits out and walks into to grab Amy's arm like she wants to stop her, but Amy fully ignores her. She keeps trying to grab things as if Jess is not there, "Don't leave him waiting, you won't need your toys anyway. Look at me!" Damon would've lost his shit by now, with the way she's pulling on Amy's little arm. And if she's doing this in front of me, I'm starting to wonder how the fuck she treats her when I'm not around. "It's okay, Jess. Can you come here?" I ask. She forgets about Amy right there and almost flies to my side. I lift a hand to brush her hair back, "She listens to me. I think... I think you've been right this whole time." "About what?" she asks gently, her eyes excited. "She sees me as her dad," I continue and I see the way Amy finally stops for a second to turn to me. I can feel her eyes blazing on me again, "And I think you really need a break,
"What do you think about that?" Zion asks with a gentle voice, "About your dad going to prison?" Amy shrugs and sits her butt down again, but closer to me this time. "Who told you about it?" "My mom," she answers, "But she's always saying bad things about him, so I didn't believe it. Then I saw him in TV and they said he hurt a lot of girls." Damon sighs and looks down at his hands. I don't think I've ever seen him look so truthfully guilty before. "How did that make you feel, Amy?" Zion asks, not even looking at her face, he's still pretending to play with a doll, “To hear that your dad hurt a lot of girls?” "I didn't feel anything," she answers and I have to close my eyes in stress. Please, universe, don't let her be just like Damon, "I like him. He’s never hurt me.” "I love you," Damon says to her, very firmly. Once again, I’m shocked at those words coming from him. I think he’s said that to my dad a few times… once to Dean, but that’s it. Never to me or anyone else
"Oh no, I'm sooo jealous I'm missing that," Damon says with a fake pout and slips back inside without another word. Before I can walk away, Zion comes out."Amy sent me away, she wants to play with Damon," he lets me know with an amused smile, "She's a lot more than we expected, huh? I was expecting a shy little thing.""She went into panic mode after the whole fire thing so she dropped the charade. What do you honestly think about her? I can tell she's in the Damon spectrum somewhere," I say, taking a deep, worried breath. "It's way too early to determine, but she does have some worrying tendencies. We always knew it was possible, though. I'm not surprised," he shrugs and leans against the wall, "I'm more worried about her relationship with Jessica, it's not good at all.""Amy is smarter than a regular kid and Jessica is probably just as smart as a regular kid. She doesn't know how to deal with someone like Amy," I dissect the situation, Zion slowly nods as if he agrees, "There's no
{ Lily }Aiden is being an asshole again, and he’s still attacking me, but he’s not wrong and that’s what pisses me off the most.I mean, I’m just a girl… except I’m old as fuck. So, I guess I am actually a traumatized woman stuck in a teenage mindset. That sounds about right.My mom had me when she was sixteen. By the time she was my age, she had a ten-year-old daughter, a husband, a household and a corporate job. She was a capable adult, more capable than most adults twice her age.And all I have is three men I’m juggling, an untrained dog and a job as a CEO at a company I haven’t been to in weeks.But I had to prove Aiden wrong, so here I am. “Lily?” Damon asks as soon as he notices me. He’s sitting on the floor with a little girl who has chin-length hair. She’s the spitting image of Damon and I’m shaking in my boots when she turns to look at me too, “W-what are you doing here so early?”Damon drops the doll he was holding and stands up to walk to me. I think he wants to hug me,
"Hi," the little girl says, studying my face before looking back at Damon, "I want to keep playing with you. Come back.”Damon looks conflicted, he looks from me to Amy like he's considering his options. "I'll leave you to it, we can keep talking later. Dean is waiting for me in the backyard with Choky," I say and take a step back, I look back down at Amy, "Bye, Amy, it was nice to meet you.""Who is Choky?” She asks. "Uhm, that’s my dog," I respond and I know I fucked up immediately because the girl's eyes light up. I feel awkward and uncomfortable around her, I don't know how the fuck to act. I'm technically her aunt, but also her possible future step-mom and that's just confusing and weird, so I really don't want her to..."Can I pet him? Please," she says and comes to grab the hem of my skirt and pull, "Please, I'll be good.”I look at Damon, he just shrugs but he looks uncomfortable too. Fuck, why is he leaving this to me? I should not be making any decisions on someone else’s
Once Damon finally disappears inside and closes the sliding doors behind him, I let go of Chocolate’s harness and take it off. I refuse to waste a perfect day being sad about Damon. He’s crazy and evil, and that will never change, so this whole two-week test is over. I go inside the house to look for shampoo and then go back outside to spend about half an hour trying to wash my dog before Dean comes back out. “You look like a homeless woman,” he says, taking in my appearance. I’m completely wet and un-sexy and I probably smell like a wet dog, but it’s okay because I won’t be having sex tonight after all, “Wanna get in the pool for a bit?” Dean gets me one of my mom’s bathing suits and we get into the pool to shit-talk Damon and talk about his terrible behavior, but I can’t even enjoy the moment because my phone keeps ringing with Brian’s calls and texts saying how much he misses me. “My boyfriend is starting to annoy me,” I complain out loud, swimming back to Dean, “And I
“Fine, Aiden,” I say to make myself clearer, “But the fight we had was very dense and I’m going to stand my ground because he’s the one in the wrong, not me.” “You don’t have to convince me, Lily. I’m always on your side,” he tells me, trying to be cute. And fuck me, but it works. I’m so damn easy, “Okay, I’ll give him the dog, get rid of him and be back in a sec.” “Chocolate will run to the car,” I let him know when he comes to grab him. Aiden nods and walks out with my dog. As soon as the door closes behind him, I run to the nearest window and peek out to see how that goes down. I know I should be the one handling my boyfriend, but Aiden offered. And according to Dean, he has a lot of experience getting rid of boyfriends, so why not use his expertise? I can see Aiden approaching Brian, who is leaning against his car waiting for me. Just like I said, Chocolate runs to him and Brian opens the door to let him inside the car. Taller and bigger and more handsome and more confide
“I found your girlfriend trying to escape,” Aiden says to Damon and waits for me to walk inside before shutting the door behind us. Then he locks it, “I’m here as a relationship counselor.” “How many relationships have you had, Mister Counselor?” Damon throws at him without getting up. “One. So, one more than you,” Aiden answers and takes his shoes off, “Sit up, don’t be rude. Make some room for us.” “What about your current girlfriend?” I ask Aiden, avoiding the bed even as Damon sits up to actually make room for us, “Madeline or something. That British, snobbish, mean girl?” “Madison,” Aiden corrects me. I knew it was Madison, I just hate her, “And she doesn’t count. She’s not actually my girlfriend; I was just trying to see if I want one of those or not. The answer is no. She’s just a good friend now.” “Hm, does she know that?” “Yes, Lily, she knows that. And she thinks you’re cool and pretty, so you’re being the mean girl here, not her,” he says, making me scoff. No gi