Eden

I don’t give him a chance to respond or defend himself. I don’t wait for him to touch me and try to soothe my anger away with kisses.

Pivoting away from him, I leave him behind.

That night, as I’m wallowing alone in my room, a loud knock on my door startles me. My first thought is that it’s Saint, and I plan to ignore it, but then a second knock sounds followed by a familiar voice.

“We’ve come bearing food and Patron, woman, open up!”

I immediately push out of my bed and hurry to answer the door. Loni and Henry are standing in the hallway. He’s carrying a pizza box, and she’s holding the head of a tequila bottle between her index and middle finger.

“What are you guys doing here?” I say with a wide smile, feeling tears press against the back of my eyes.

“We heard about Mr. Porter,” Loni explains. “We figured you could use some cheering up.”

I quickly step back and let them in.

As Henry moves to set the pizza down by my bed, she pauses next to me and whispers, “Are you okay?”

I shake my head. “Not really, but this’ll help.”

She curls her fingers around my arm and squeezes, giving me a sympathetic smile before moving from my side to join Henry.

After I shut the door and settle in with them on the floor, I feel a little bit of the weight of the day lift off my shoulders.

“Nobody’s giving you shit again, right?” Henry asks as he opens the pizza box and starts handing out slices.

“Other than Loni’s lovely sibling—”

“Shut your filthy mouth, Mallory Ellis,” she interrupts, and I release my first genuine laugh of the day.

“But no, they’re not,” I continue, dodging Loni’s light jab at my shoulder. “They’re more interested in Zoe Buckley.”

“She quit today,” Henry says between bites of pizza. “It sucks, and I don’t buy for a second that Porter’s i

Loni opens the tequila bottle and shoves it in my direction. I accept it gratefully and take a deep swig. “I hate this place.”

“I’ve been saying that for years and nobody understands.” Twisting her lips, she snatches the tequila from my grasp and tips it to her mouth. She’s making a face when she lowers it. “Jesus, this is awful.”

“It’s—" But my defense of the Patron is interrupted by a sharp knock on my door.

“Three guesses as to whom that might be,” Loni whispers, her eyes widening as she downs another sip of the tequila that she had just trash talked.

The knock comes again, harder this time.

“Ellis, I know you’re in there,” Saint’s voice cut through the air, irritated and insistent. “Let me in.”

“Should you get that?” Henry’s asks, eyes wide.

I press my lips together and shake my head firmly. “Nope.”

We sit there as Saint knocks a few more times before finally stopping. I know he hasn’t given up, though, and a beat later, my phone buzzes on my desk.

“You sure you don’t want to answer?” Loni murmurs, casting a sideways look at the phone rattling around the wood surface.

Leaning over, I snatch the device and power it off.

“Problem solved.”

They both stare at me like I’m insane, and maybe most people would be for blowing off Saint Angelle. He’d make quick work of dismantling their life in retaliation. The thing with me, though, is that he’s already done pretty much everything he could to pick apart the pieces of my life.

That’s why I don’t even look at my phone for the rest of the night.

Because there’s truly not much else he can do to me.