I arrived home late in the afternoon and sighed as I closed the door behind me. I leaned back against it, momentarily losing all the strength in my body.While it was nice of him to say so, my body was definitely not the same as before. Even after resting the whole day, I was still exhausted from last night’s activities. I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted to come home to catch up on sleep. I was going to be completely lazy because I had to go back to work tomorrow.I was only there for a moment, then I slipped off my shoes and headed for my bedroom. I didn’t even feel up to eating dinner; I’d just have a heavier breakfast tomorrow.Before I could get far, there was a knock at my door. Slowly, I turned around and stared at it. The only person to visit me recently was Ben, but I’d left him at the hotel. If he was just going to show up at my place anyway, he could have just followed me back. Or, he could have texted me.I knew it couldn’t be him, though. He wouldn’t be that close behi
A few days passed, and I did my best to avoid Ben. Now that I knew our parents were going to get married, it changed things. Majorly. I didn’t know if he knew already since Dad had said Ben met with Dad and his mom before. Did Ben know? Did Dad mention he had a daughter who happened to be a professor at his school?I wasn’t sure he did, and that just made it worse, because I didn’t want to be the one to tell him that we were going to be stepbrother and sister soon.Avoiding him wasn’t all that easy. Especially on the days, I had a class with him. I arrived early for class and left as soon as I was done with the lecture, then went and hid in the faculty lounge. I was too afraid to even spend time in my office, in case he went looking for me there. I was lost, and I didn’t know what to say to him. How do you tell your lover that you’re about to be step-siblings? It made my eyes roll and made me shiver just to think about it.Somehow, I managed to avoid him completely. I managed to avoid
Long empty days filled with anxiety, regret, and pain passed by with no relief in sight. Nothing helped, and all I wanted to do was call Ben back and apologize, to beg him to come back to me. I stopped one day and thought, I can't do this anymore, I can’t take it.After thinking it over, I went to the Dean to explain that my aunt was sick, and I wanted to take some time off so I could go visit her. It was a total lie, but he didn’t need to know the truth. After getting permission, I left the school.Ben tried to call and left me a few messages. I did listen to the voicemails, apologies for the argument, for breaking into my apartment and intruding on my privacy. He asked me to call him back, but I didn’t.Then, I got a text, and it had me shaking with confused emotions and indecision.“I know about your dad; it’s not an issue. Please, talk to me.”I stared at the words for a long moment but went back to ignoring him. I went back to ignoring my own wishes.I woke up, feeling disoriente
I stared at my phone, feeling both annoyed and frustrated. Angela wasn’t answering my calls, and when I texted, all she said was that she was away and didn’t know when she would be coming back.Fuck!My restless mind thought back to that last time I saw her in her apartment. Maybe I’d gone too far, making a spare key without her permission and letting myself into her home when she wasn’t there. She had been acting strange, though. I didn’t think it was all in my head that she was ignoring me, and it was unlike her to blow up at me the way she did just because I was reading her book without permission.I didn’t think it was enough to warrant her being so mad at me, though. Something must have happened before she came home to make her suddenly want to back away from me. She’d been so happy when she left the hotel that weekend, everything was still okay, so something else must have happened.The most frustrating thing was there was no way for me to find out what the problem was when she
I sat at a restaurant across from Winston Kane. It was just the two of us since I’d insisted on Mom not being present for this. I would tell her later or let Winston tell her, but I didn’t want to waste time getting Mom to understand. It would be enough to get her father to listen to me and take me seriously.“Your mother told me you wanted to talk to me about something important, Ben,” he said with a slight frown. “Are you against the wedding?”“No, of course not,” I said quickly after a surprised pause.It made sense, though, that he would think that way. He didn’t know that I knew about Angela yet, or the history between us, and since I didn’t invite Mom along, he wouldn’t assume I was trying to bond with him. While there would be kids that had something against their parents moving on, I was too independent not to allow Mom the same right, so I honestly didn’t need to know anything more about him besides the fact that he made my mom happy. After all, I wasn’t going to be living th
“Have you had breakfast?” Ben asked as we settled in the suite.I shook my head. “I’m fine, though, for now,” I said quietly.“Okay,” he said, sitting beside me on the sofa. “I’ll make this quick then.”He shifted his body, so he was facing me, and took my hands in his. He held my gaze with his serious eyes, and I suddenly felt like squirming.“I know about Sandra,” he said “I also know about our parents. Neither of those factors bother me, and Angela, you have nothing to be ashamed about. So there’s no reason for you to run off and hide. Your dad wants you there for the wedding. So, would you please go back with me?”My cheeks warmed. “I told you already that I was going back.”He nodded. “I heard you. But I mean, go back with me. I don’t want to hide what’s going on between us, I don’t know what we’re going to do about school, but let’s at least be honest with our parents, all right?”I fidgeted. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. I was very worried about what our parents would thin
I wanted to get back to New York as soon as possible. I made arrangements for Angela’s car, then drove us to the airport in the rental. We had to wait a bit before we got on the plane, so we found a café in the airport and had breakfast. Angela didn’t seem to have much of an appetite, though.Then, just as we were settling down in the plane, Angela suddenly clutched a hand to her mouth and ran for the bathroom. I wanted to go after her, but she waved a hand at me when she saw me move to stand, so I could only wait anxiously for her to return. She was back five minutes later and took her seat as though nothing had happened.“Angela are you okay?” I asked. “Are you not good with planes? Do you get motion sickness?”She waved away my concern with a tight smile. “It’s nothing like that. The plane hasn’t even started moving yet, so how could it be that? It’s nothing, maybe something I ate yesterday.”I thought her expression was strange, but she didn’t want to talk about it, so I reluctant
Since I’d just lost my job, I had a lot of free time, and because Ben decided to take some time off before the wedding, we spent the time together. He should have been going to classes, but I figured since I was no longer his professor, and I would be too bored by myself, I wouldn’t nag him so much to go back to class.Two days later, and it was the day of the wedding. It was a small affair, and I’d somehow been roped into being a bridesmaid, even though it was last minute. Ben would be suffering with me, anyway, since he was sent to join Dad’s side. Both our parents put together didn’t know that many people, and we happened to be among the youngest of the group, so we got stuck together. I was just glad I’d be walking down that aisle with him by my side since I’d imagined I would only have to sit down in the audience and wait for the whole thing to be over.“Angela, are you done with your makeup yet? Would you like any help?”Hayley, Ben’s mom, made her way over to me. She looked st