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“Don’t touch me,” I snapped at my cousin as I took in his face, tightening my grip even harder, knowing I was hurting him and not giving a single crap. I had seen Rip out of my peripheral vision jerk to a stop and turn around, but I had this. I had always had this.
Iktr
I took a step back and stopped only when I bumped into the hard mass of a body that belonged to Ripley. His hands didn’t touch me. He didn’t do anything but stand there.
Dats a power couple if I’ve ever seen one
“You fucking bitch—” My hand formed into a fist, ready. But I felt it then. The hands on my shoulders. I heard it then. The deep grumble from the man behind me. Then I caught onto everything that came out of Rip’s mouth, the rumbling rattle of each word etching themselves into me for the rest of my life. “You can shut your fucking mouth.”
Period bae
By the time I turned around to look at the bodyguard I’d had to use my one and only favor on, his hands were at the scarf around his neck. He was tightening it for some reason. His cheeks were more flushed than any other time I had seen, and the tendons in his hands popped with restraint. And his gaze… it had been on the ground, his lips thin.
Bro someone pls tell me what the deal is I’m begging
“You all right?” he asked, still taking his time with his words, his expression seeming like this mix of horrified and shocked as he watched me. “Yes.” I bit my cheek and then shook my head immediately afterward. “No.” Those eyes sliced to somewhere behind me for a split second before returning to my face. That foreign expression disappearing into that mean-muggin’ Rip face that was my favorite. His chest expanded with a big breath, and he was totally serious as he asked, “Want me to go whoop his ass?” “Yeah.” One of his big feet moved. “But don’t.”
“Just thirty more seconds,” I told him, quietly, trying to ignore the ache in my chest. But he didn’t listen. He moved, and before I knew it, something warm and heavy fell over my shoulders and arms. What had to be his hands draped themselves on my shoulders, over what had to be his jacket, and slid down over my arms, his hands molding themselves loosely over my muscles and bones. The skin on his palms and fingers eventually landed on my wrists. He was warm. Those palms kept moving downward until they were cupping my hands. His fingers lingered there. Holding them there. Then they dropped
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:)
Jason had gone ahead and started adding color without giving the primer enough time to dry. I wasn’t even sure where he had gotten the paint from. It wasn’t even a rookie mistake. It was an idiot mistake.
Oh nah ts would have to end today ain’t no way
“Look, Jason, go tell Mr. Cooper or Rip about it if you don’t want to do it. I have too many things to do, to do it for you. I already screwed up this month and had to own up to it. I left instructions and they weren’t followed. I’m not doing it for you. Period.” Sorry not sorry, buddy.
Period ate him up
His gaze stayed on the other man, but I could tell that notch between his eyebrows had formed. Maybe he really could sense it too. “Everything good?” No, but I said, “Yeah.” Rip swung that gaze back to me. I gave him a smile that, if he knew me even a little well, he would have seen right through. “Let me know if anything’s up,” Rip said in a voice that was too calm.
Oh he’s cooked I fear
“Why? I paid my way out. I’m out. I’ve been out. There isn’t a reason for any of them to bring me up,” Rip replied, confirming that I hadn’t been imagining his voice to start off. “Man, I don’t fuckin’ know. I don’t want shit to do with it either. I got a life now. A real life. I got a kid on the way; I don’t want a piece of it,” the unfamiliar man spoke up.
I knew it had to be sum like this
I watched his whole body exhale before his mouth twitched and he said in that low, grumbling voice, “Decide what you want as a favor.” “What’s that?” The next expression he gave me, I did understand. It was his Luna’s an idiot face. Then he repeated himself. And even after he repeated himself, I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. So I asked him once more. “I don’t understand what favor you want me to decide on,” I told him slowly, like it was him who wasn’t understanding what he was saying. Because that was the exact case. I had used it up yesterday. He wasn’t exactly a spring
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I know what u r my brotha
What was going on with him?
He’s an introvert that’s what
“I’m not that ugly. I can find someone to date me if I want,” I told them, dryly. It was Lily who chose to ignore I’d said anything. She slapped the flat of her hand against the table before yelling, “SO HOW ARE WE GOING TO DO THIS? I CAN SEND EVERYONE A LINK TO A GOOGLE FORM WHERE WE CAN SIGN UP LUNA FOR DATES ON CERTAIN DAYS OR WE CAN DO A GROUP MESSAGE.”
It’s crazy how I just said no?? Like that idea is very weird to me idk
“There’s cake. If you want a piece, Rogelio said he’d come up here in—” I glanced at my watch. “—ten minutes.” My boss didn’t move, but he wasn’t done asking questions. “What kind?” “Angel food.” One of those hands went up as he scratched at his throat, exposing maybe a millimeter more of it than usual. “You make it?” he asked in that calm voice that was probably my favorite of all.
Sir I see right through u
“Isn’t it your wife’s birthday today?” He froze, and then he looked up so slowly, straight at the wall ahead, that I knew the answer. “Today is the sixth?” he whispered. I glanced at Rip, and even he was looking at Miguel curiously. “Yes.” Miguel cursed long and low in Spanish before glancing at me with a horrified and panicked expression. “I wondered why she was giving me a dirty look this morning.” He muttered almost thoughtfully, his eyes wide. “She’s gonna kill me. I thought her birthday was tomorrow.” “She’s not going to kill you,” I tried to assure him, not fully believing the words
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This is so funny to me
“I don’t give a fuck why you went or why you took her with you!” “Because she’s my wife, and she has been for almost twenty-three years!” my favorite boss shouted back. I took another three steps, passing the break room and approaching the office door when the words got real. “Yeah, the wife you married a year after your last one died. You want to talk about fucking disrespectful.” Mr. Cooper had been married before? I blinked at the door, feeling… I don’t know. Shocked? Taken aback? I had worked for Mr. Cooper for nearly ten years and had never heard anything about another wife.
Oop- also rip HAS to be his kid or sum like that cause…
His left cheek twitched. Then his right one did too, and in the single blink of an eye, Lucas Ripley was smiling at me. Straight white teeth. That not-thin but not-full mouth dark pink and pulled up at the edges. He even had a dimple. Rip had a freaking dimple. And I wanted to touch it to make sure it was real. I couldn’t help but think it was just about the cutest thing I had ever seen, even though I had zero business thinking anything along those lines.
Mannn
“But seriously, Rip, everything else aside, I want you to know I’m being serious about this favor thing. You don’t owe me anything. You don’t have to do anything. Going with me to the funeral was more than enough.” “I don’t care what you think. I still owe you.”
Why was this funny
Let me know if you want a drink. I got you,” he offered, sliding Rip a quick glance before dropping his hand off me.
LOL
Phone out, I saw THEA flashing across the screen, and I answered it, cupping my hand around my mouth so she could hear me. “Hello?” I pretty much yelled anyway. “Luna,” her watery voice came over the line. “I got broken into.” I froze. “What?” “My place. It got broken into,” she explained with a sniffle that was so loud I managed to hear it despite the loud background.
WHAT
“Thank you so much for the ride,” I managed to tell him. Rip’s gaze was pretty intent on me as he put the car into park and leaned back in the seat, and I watched as his eyes flicked to my house over my shoulder before returning to me. He licked his lips before he said in that boss-man voice that told me not to argue, “Get your things. I’ll wait out here.”
He on a roll tn huh
Luna, I’m taking you to Dallas. Get your shit. Of course I’d reacted the way any sane person would. I had sat there and stared blankly for about a minute until he’d raised his eyebrows at me and said, Night’s not getting any younger, baby girl. Let’s go.
DON’T START W THE NICKNAMES UNLESS U THINKING OF MARRIAGE 🫵🏾
“It was just one little lie, Ripley.” “You lied to the fucking cops for me, Luna. That’s a felony if you didn’t know. There’s nothing little about that.”
OH??
“At the rate you’ve been going lately, I’m going to start to think that I don’t get on your nerves as much as you make me think I do, boss.” The laugh that burst out of him literally had me clutching the door I was leaning against. It was so sharp, so out of the blue, like a freaking firework going off right inside the cab. I jumped. Then I grinned. And I kept it going, because why not? I’d made him laugh. Rip. Laugh. “Next thing I know, we’re going to be friends,” I kept muttering, barely able to keep from laughing.
I hadn’t realized that my sister had moved. When I had first trailed her up to Dallas three years ago, I had just followed her. The place I had been to was a decent apartment complex that hadn’t looked too sketchy. It hadn’t been anything fancy by any means, but it had been all right. It had basically been the same kind of place that we had lived in after moving out of Mr. Cooper’s. But this place, this place was nice. Too nice. Way too nice if the Mercedes and Audis and BMWs that were on the other side of the gate meant anything. I gave Rip the code for the gate—Thea had texted it to me along
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Ok dat IS a lil sketchy icl like she ain’t even say nun🤨
I paid for her meal plan at school. There had to be a reason she hadn’t told me she was living somewhere else. Maybe she had gotten a new roommate who was rolling in it?
Nah idk dats sus
I punched my finger to ring the doorbell again, then knocked on it too. It wasn’t even one in the morning yet. I knew she wouldn’t be asleep. The door still didn’t open. “Call her,” Rip said. I pressed the buzzer again. Still nothing. Pulling out my phone, I dialed her number from memory and heard it ring inside. Abruptly, the chiming stopped like she had hit ignore or silenced it.
Ok wtf bruh🤨
“Luna,” she muttered, genuinely sounding surprised. “Hi,” I told her, trying not to sound awkward. My twenty-one-year-old sister wiped at her face with the back of her hands, and I watched as she glanced at Rip behind me and let her eyes linger for a moment, this weird, weird expression coming over her before she took me in again. “I wasn’t sure you were coming,” she tried to claim in her equally weird voice. I blinked. “You asked me to. I texted you twice while we were on the way.” I tried to give her another smile, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded. Had she really been about to ignore my call?
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Ok I’m getting weirded out cause what
My sister handed me the bottle of water and just stood there. I took it from her, unscrewing the lid and sucking down half before putting it back on. Glancing at the man to my side, I held the bottle out to him, just in case he really was thirsty. He was. He took it from me without hesitation and chugged the rest. In any other circumstance, I would tell him that friends shared bottles of water, but… well, that wasn’t the time, and I wasn’t in the mood when my sister was being so strange.
I needa chill
“What about your roommate? Did they take anything from her?” Her “no” was the sharpest one she’d ever given me. I held my breath. “Where is she?” She did it. She scratched at her cheek. If I hadn’t known her as well as I had once upon a time, I wouldn’t have known that was her tell when she was full of BS. But she sounded pretty freaking convincing as she said, “She’s out. She’ll be back in a little while. She had to work tonight.” Work? At midnight? With a place like this, she wasn’t exactly a waitress.
Roommate a criminal or sum?
“How much is a laptop?” I managed to ask, clinging onto that thread of love like it was going to save me from falling off a cliff. “You don’t have to do that, Luna. It’s fine. I can figure it out,” she said. “But you need it for school. I can send you some money over—” Thea shook her head sharply. “No, it’s fine, Luna. I’ve got it.” She had it? How?
Her AND the roommate doin shady shi?
“I have to be at work at eight tomorrow, and I’ll be there all day.” “Okay.” I knew what she was trying to say. I knew it. “We agreed not to let people stay over…,” she kept going. There it was. “I’m so glad you came. Only you would. You’re the best half-sister I could ever ask for.” It was the half-sister that finally, finally made me flinch. She had only called me that every once in a while, and only over the last five years. Before I had always been her sister. Her big sister. And now, now I was her half-sister.
This genuinely makes me upset
I loved my sister. I genuinely loved Thea with everything in my heart. She had been the first person to be put into my life that had loved me back. And she was, in few words, asking me to leave after I’d traveled almost four hours to come and see her.
Like-
I wasn’t going to cry. I wasn’t going to get upset. This was not the worst thing that had ever happened to me. My sister telling me I couldn’t stay with her. My sister referring to me as her half-sister. My own fucking sister not wanting me around for whatever reason. I had driven out here because she had asked. Not because I expected anything. But I had expected more than to get sent home after ten minutes of being inside her place after she’d called me upset. I specifically didn’t let myself think of how she had disregarded me. Pushed me aside.
Shi I’d cry idc
One single tear slid out of my eye and right along my nose, brushing the side of my mouth as it kept slipping down and over my chin. I blinked. She hadn’t even tried to hug me. After everything— She didn’t even bother wanting to take a second and talk to me. Just in and out. Out you go. Bye.
It’s ok to let it out bestie
“Luna,” came the deep, deep grumble of a voice. “Fifteen seconds,” I tried to tell him as I told myself to stop. Stop. Stop, Luna. You’re fine. Quit being dramatic. You’re taking this too personal. Stop it. I’d swear I heard a muttered “Fuck” from somewhere too close, but I could never be sure. What I could be sure of was the body that stepped right up to mine. The body that didn’t give me a chance to stop crying or even drop my hands because that body wrapped itself around my own. An arm curled over my shoulder, another right below it, draping itself across my shoulder blades. The body was
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Why would u say that imma cry more now
“You got your ‘love you’ bracelet on. You’re all right.” The arm closest to the top, directly over my shoulders, tightened, and warmer, soothing words tried to drown the old ones away. “I’ve got you. I’m here,” the man holding me said. He had me. Maybe just for a minute. Maybe for ten. And even though I knew it was dumb and that I had no right to and I needed to get it together, I leaned into him. I went a little limp against his body, even tilting my head forward until it rested right between his neck and collarbone.
Stfuuu
All I had ever wanted was to be loved. And one of the only people I had expected to give me that unconditionally for the rest of my life had let me walk right out of her place, without as much as just... talking to me about how school was going. Or work. Or anything. We had driven all the way over here and….
I actually feel sad for her rn likeee
“I just… I just….” I tried to say but couldn’t find the words. “I know.” Those fingers kneaded my muscles lightly, the band around my shoulders tightening. “I know. You’re good. You’re fine.”
Sigh
I knew something was really wrong on Monday when I showed up to work and found the lights in my room were already on.
I’m scared
He still hadn’t moved. He was too busy looking at whatever was inside the booth. The only thing in there should have been the parts Jason had finished days ago. Oh, God. He’d messed something up, hadn’t he? But how? What? I really hadn’t left much for him to screw up.
Girl it’s Jason idk why u surprised fr
“I swear on my life I didn’t do it,” I rushed out, dropping my hand as more nerves shot straight through my chest. “Stop talking, Luna,” he said in the quietest voice he had ever used on me before. “Just stop fucking talking.” I did what he said, feeling nauseous the entire time. He couldn’t blame me for it… could he?
Oh lord
Maybe it was my fault that I had left Jason alone, but it wasn’t my fault he had done this. It wasn’t my fault that Rip was in a bad mood and was now being mean. What was my fault was how betrayed I felt right then. I hadn’t had enough time to build up any expectations between us, but this? This hurt. Just a little, but still. “Please don’t fire me.” My voice cracked despite the fact I was basically whispering. “I’ll fix whatever needs to be fixed. It’s my fault. You don’t have to pay me, but please don’t fire me. I love working here,”
Girl stop making me feel connected to you-
There was a deeper sigh. A longer one. Another “Luna…” that reminded me of a shooting star with a long tail behind it. A dying meteor. That’s what it was in a way. I would forgive him. I would move on, but that Luna wouldn’t change what it really was. A reminder that he was my boss first and foremost. A dying little dream that was burning itself out. “It’s fine,” I told him, noticing how flat my tone sounded and getting frustrated over it. “If you wouldn’t mind helping me move it, please.” Silence. There was another sigh. His gradual “All right” wasn’t what I expected. It was soft. So soft it
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Idk maybe if he’d said literally anything else we’d be cool. Like obviously w ur silence she assumed the worst she can’t read ur mind😐
I asked, pretty certain he wasn’t asking about the reaming I’d given Jason again that morning just in case the first one, the day before, hadn’t been enough. I was still mad about it. Bitching him out the morning before, then refusing to speak to him the rest of the day hadn’t been enough to get the anger out of my system. I had gotten to work that morning, still unable to forgive him, and when he’d decided to go out on a limb and ask me a question about an hour ago, I hadn’t been particularly nice in my response to him. I only felt like a tiny bit bad about biting his head off. Then again, I
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Nah keep going till he gets the message
Mr. Cooper smiled at me, not giving me a single clue what he was referring to, as I pulled out the chair next to him. “How was it?” he asked again.
Also I’m not vibin w Mr cooper idk ion fully trust him fr
“I can get you the address to my favorite shop.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mr. Cooper glance between the two of us—probably surprised I didn’t immediately say yes—but I pretended like I didn’t see his movement. What neither one of us could ignore was Rip saying, “I want you to go with me.” He wanted me to go with him.
This would work on me I fear
If I said I was just busy enough, it would sound like I didn’t have enough to do. If I said I had time, it would sound like I didn’t have enough to do.
Typo(s)? This hurt my brain for a sec
I could be a mature, reasonable person and put the day behind me.
Not me icl
“Because he asked me to,” I responded as I locked the cabinet back up. He didn’t need to know that I had tried to get out of it. “But now I’m stuck here doing your work,” Jason complained, like he wasn’t paid to do just that.
Ni- ooo he finna pmo
