After reading the text that just came through, I quietly exhaled before pocketing my phone.
“So this is your plan then?” I questioned as I made my presence known. The hooded figure sat alone on the green bench, not caring who came along. “You’ll get arrested with your record, and she’ll take you back?” I snorted. “Think again.”
Rich sighed as he continued to sulk at the blue tiled wall in front of him. There was white writing on the dark glossy surface that said the same thing in the few languages I could translate, along with a dozen or so red specks that made no sense to me.
“Fuck off, Lo.”
Ignoring him, I frowned as I looked around. “How the hell did you even get in here?”
“I was good at this once, remember?”
Realizing he was referring to who he’d been with Emily, I rolled my eyes before turning to the square’s security guard. He was the one who’d found Rich lurking after hours. “Pouvez-vous nous donner un moment?” I asked him in rusty French.
The guard hesitated only a moment before nodding and trotting off. Sitting next to Rich on the bench, I got comfortable after looking at the stubborn set of his mouth.
“How did you even find me?” he snapped.
“Night guard’s a fan.”
I didn’t bother to elaborate any further because it didn’t matter how I got here as long as I was here. For the moment, Rich was too much of a jackass to see it.
“Lucky me,” he mumbled.
“Would you rather be in jail for trespassing?”
“Yes.”
I stared at his hard profile for a moment. “I take it things didn’t go well with Braxton this morning?” He didn’t bother to respond because I already knew the answer, so I tried a different tactic to keep him talking. Anything to keep him from sinking too deep inside his head where all the fucked-up thoughts resided. There would be too many casualties trying to get him out if he gave into them even once. “So, what now?”
“I’m leaving.”
I frowned at his announcement as I sat up. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Bound.” He shook his head as he stared at the ground now. “I can’t do this shit anymore.”
“Let me guess,” I drawled through a smile that felt tight. Wasn’t a damn thing funny about what he had said. “You’ll run back into Emily’s frail-ass arms?”
“Fuck Emily, and fuck you too.” He looked at me now, his silver eyes aflame and full of accusation. “After what you did, I wouldn’t be surprised if her baby was yours,” Rich spat.
Don’t slap him, Lo.
“I would have never fucked that bitch with your dick. That kid isn’t mine, and I’m betting both of my nuts it’s not yours either.”
“Whatever.”
“You’re not leaving,” I told him immediately. I wasn’t going to beat around the bush or beg. The same threat I made Braxton applied to my best friends too. In fact…as Rich and I sat stewing in silence, I fished out my phone and pulled up Amazon. Damn, I wished I still smoked. After a few taps, I found the items I needed.
“You can’t make me stay,” Rich said in a low tone as I concentrated on my task.
Was sixty feet enough?
I ordered three of each before checking out, sending a quick text, and putting my phone away. “Don’t be so melodramatic.”
“You’d do the same, so don’t pretend you’d stay.”
“There are a few things I would have done differently, starting with Emily, but I won’t beat a dead horse because the shit is starting to stink. Braxton isn’t Emily, Rich. You and I both know that no time or distance will change how you feel about her. So she needs you to suffer and grovel for a while. Are you telling me she’s not worth it?”
“You weren’t there, Lo. She sounded so damn sure that I had no chance.”
I absently shrugged as I stared off. “Women.”
I could feel his stare after a while and finally met his incredulous gaze.
“Are you supposed to be helping?”
Peering over my shoulder when I saw movement, I felt myself relax. Fucking finally. “Nope,” I answered him even as I stared at Braxton’s sexy ass in that red dress. Suddenly “stunning” seemed like too cheap a word to describe my baby girl. “I’m supposed to be stalling.”
Rich frowned until he heard their footsteps and turned his head enough to see them. Forcing myself to look away from Braxton, I watched him rise to his feet slowly and turn, an involuntary movement he probably wasn’t even aware of. I couldn’t see Rich’s face underneath his dark hood, but his emotions belonged to me as much as they did to him. It was all I needed to know.
“You’re really going to make me chase you?” Braxton fussed as she approached.
Yeah, I’d snitched. Houston hung back to give them the space to work out their shit properly this time.
“How is that fair, Jericho? You lied to me.”
“I promise that’s not what I’m trying to do. I just wanted to make it right.”
“Then stay.”
I could tell he’d looked away when she followed his gaze. “I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t watch.”
“What can’t you watch, Jericho?”
“You, them, and not me too. They deserve to be happy. You deserve to be happy.”
“And you?” She’d been inching closer the entire time they spoke as if he were a skittish kitten. “What do you deserve? Do you even know?”
“No.”
“Don’t you want me anymore?” she asked, her voice shaking and making it clear that she was no longer sure. Houston, Rich, and I had nearly identical reactions at almost the same time.
I held back my groan as my eyes closed, and I pinched the bridge of my nose. I was pretty sure I’d murder Rich if he lied to her on some self-sacrificing bullshit. If there was an excuse to be selfish, it was now.
Choose wisely, motherfucker.
“Of course, I do.”
“Prove it.”
I was proud of the confidence restored in her tone. I didn’t want her crying anymore, not over him, not over Houston…not even over me.
“How?” Rich asked her eagerly.
“Stay.” He stepped closer to her, and she let him into her space. “I’m not going to make it easy for you,” she warned him when his hands gripped her ass, and he pulled her closer. “In fact, I’m going to make it as hard for you as I can.”
After pulling his hood back, I finally saw his smile. Seemed like it’d been a while. “You already did,” he swore to her.
He was definitely talking about this dick.
Rolling my eyes, I looked away as I slowly stretched and yawned. “Mission accomplished. Everyone’s in love. Can we go now?” I snapped as I stared at the wall.
The night was still young, but I’d never been this exhausted.
Now that we had Braxton back, I felt like I could sleep for days.
I must have drawn Braxton’s attention to the wall because she broke away from our drummer to stand before it. “What does it say?” she asked no one in particular.
Since I was the only one who knew, I answered her question. “I love you.”
She whirled around to look at me and blushed when I held her stare.
Yeah, that’s right, baby. I love you.
“All of it?” Her brows rose.
“I can only read a few of them, but that seems to be the gist.” I shrugged.
“And the red pieces?” she inquired.
I was silent since I had no fucking clue, but I was curious, so I stood and moved until I stood at the wall next to Braxton. Houston and Rich did the same until we all stood together, staring at “I love you,” written in over two-hundred languages.
“It’s a heart.” Braxton’s head swiveled toward Rich. Of course, his angst-riddled ass had to be the one to crack the code. “One heart torn apart by love. Or lack thereof. It could symbolize anything.”
“What do you think it means?” Braxton asked him.
Jericho was quiet as he stared at the wall. I’m sure he already knew the answer since he’d been staring at it for hours. “Pain isn’t singular. We’re not alone, no matter how much it seems that way. Someone out there feels it too, and if we ever meet, we could bring our broken pieces together. We could bind them and form one heart.” He looked into her brown eyes. “We could be Bound.”
Nice.
Braxton melted, and I smirked.
Rich was good for something, after all.
He looked at me over her head like he’d heard my thoughts. When Braxton turned to me, I made sure to school my expression. We weren’t quite out of the dog house yet.
“We can go,” our little dictator decided after she’d taken a few pictures of the wall.
I knew she’d post them on her Instagram later, but at least it wouldn’t be with some nauseating caption spouting bullshit the person who wrote it didn’t even believe.
Braxton was too gangster.
She’d post a heart. Enough said.
We turned to leave, and I scooped her into my arms the moment she took a step forward and winced.
“Thanks,” she said with a relieved exhale once she was settled with her arms around my neck. “New heels. I haven’t broken them in yet.”
“I know.” I gazed down at her as the four of us left the garden square to get started on the rest of our lives together. “Can I fuck you in them sometime?”
I was feeling pretty optimistic about our future when she smiled.
