Do Your Worst

by Rosie Danan

Cobwebs hung like lace from the rafters. Riley made a mental note to invest in some kind of hat so the bleached blond of her hair didn’t beckon critters the way it seemed to summon fuckboys.

Even the way she worked made him want to scream. Had he ever seen anything as sexy as Riley Rhodes with a pen in her pouty, porn-star mouth? Studying like she was ravenous for it. Making connections in seconds. Diving in like she’d conquer any problem, just watch her and wait.

Maybe if they were in their twenties, it would seem too soon to be talking about this kind of stuff, but they weren’t. They both had a strong sense of self, they knew what they wanted, what they valued.

As it turned out, sometimes what you needed was someone who brought out the worst in you. There was a gift, she realized, that could only be exchanged between former enemies—permission to forgive yourself. Because if someone could see all your failures and faults, could actively seek out every possible reason to dislike you, and somehow still come around in the end, well, maybe your worst wasn’t so bad after all.