“Not to my knowledge. She figured things fizzled out when you moved to Seattle.”

  “No. Not even close.” I shake my head. “I mean, obviously, we went longer without seeing each other, and there were periods when we weren’t talking, but it’s always been her for me.”

  I hear a sharp intake of breath, and when I look over, Elana is looking at me like she feels sorry for me. “I hate that this was how you had to meet. That your circumstances make it so hard for you to be together,” she says with a soft smile.

  I’m shocked by this response after hearing everyone else’s opinions over the years and in the past few days. But then I remember the compassion Elana has consistently shown all three of us from the moment we moved in next door. “Have you shared this opinion with my mother?”

  “Here and there, when it was warranted. I’ve just always told her that two people who are destined or even determined to be together are going to find a way. And nothing or no one will ever be able to stop that. I understood her approach when you guys were younger, but once you went away to college and Halle was a senior…” She shrugs. “I told her she was wasting her breath, and the harder she pushed, the more you guys were going to push back. I love her dearly, and I think she did have the best intentions, but she doesn’t understand why you two have distanced yourselves… I do.” She pauses before she speaks up again. “My son really never stood a chance.” She chuckles.

  “No, and if you could relay that message to him, that would be great,” I say with a hint of humor even though I’m dead serious.

  I look toward the entrance just as Halle enters, and it’s amazing what just having her in my sights can do to my mood. Not that I was bothered by the conversation with Elana, but it just made me want to have my eyes on her. Halle approaches us, and I immediately hand her the old-fashioned I ordered.

  “Hi, Elana.” She gives a timid wave, probably because she’s not sure what kind of conversation she’s walking into. I can tell she reapplied her makeup, and while her hair has fallen slightly from the tighter curls from earlier, it doesn’t look like she spent the last twenty minutes being fucked in a coat closet.

  “Hi, Halle.” She smiles back and gives me a small side hug. “I’m going to take my seat. But it’s good to see you both”—she hesitates before finishing her thought—“happy.”

  When she leaves, Halle’s eyes flit to mine in question. “Way better than I was expecting,” I say, answering her unspoken question about how that conversation went.

  The sound of silverware hitting a champagne flute rings through the air, and when I look toward it, Mike stands in front of his seat, trying to get everyone’s attention.

  “If everyone wants to take their seat, we are going to start serving dinner. But before that, I want to thank everyone on behalf of my future wife, Sara, and myself for coming out tonight and celebrating with us. I hope everyone enjoys themselves,” he says before sitting down. There are two empty seats across from him and my mother, which I assume are for us, and I’m already dreading it.

  When we make it to the table, sure enough, our place cards are there, and my Aunt Emily is sitting next to my mother, while Dylan is on the other side of Mike, making for a potentially very uncomfortable dinner.

  I pull out the chair for Halle, and she sits down before I take the seat next to her. I immediately put my hand on her thigh to give it a brief squeeze, alerting her that I’m here and she’s not alone. Elana sits next to her, and I’m grateful that it’s someone who isn’t judging us. And that it’s not Brant.

  “I hope you’re hungry,” my mother says to us with a smile that I can tell is forced.

  I nod, still irritated with her, while Halle politely speaks up. “Yes. I wasn’t feeling that great, but I’m better now,” she offers, probably to corroborate the story she told me to tell to excuse her absence from the party.

  “Good,” my mother says, but her voice is clipped.

  “So, Halle, when do you graduate from business school?” Mike asks, and I wish everyone could just leave her alone.

  “In May,” she answers.

  “And what’s next for you?”

  “I have started applying to a few places, but I'm not exactly sure if I want to stay in New York.”

  “Where do you see yourself if not in New York?” Dylan asks just as our salads are being placed in front of us.

  “As I said, I don’t know yet,” Halle says with a smile, but I can hear the fuck off in her voice, and I couldn’t be prouder.

  Dylan smirks at us, clearly enjoying goading us. “Well, didn’t you mention a boyfriend? What about him? Where is he? I would assume you’d like to be wherever he is?”

  “It’s a decision we’ll obviously make together.” She smiles, and then I feel her hand on my thigh, signaling me to relax because I’m ready to speak up to warn him to back the fuck off.

  “And what does he mean by boyfriend?” My Aunt Emily interjects, and I am very fucking close to losing it because why is everyone such a fucking shit stirrer all of a sudden? I notice my mother hasn’t looked up from her food and is eating in virtual silence.

  “Em—” Elana speaks up, and when I look over at her, she’s gesturing to her to stop. “Maybe you should have some water?”

  “I’m fine,” my aunt says with a very unrefined snort before taking another long sip of her drink. “I just didn’t know she had a boyfriend.”

  “Why would you?” I speak up. “It’s not like you ever talk to her or have any kind of relationship.”

  “Okay.” Elana interrupts. “Tonight is about Sara and Mike. Let’s just keep it about that and their upcoming nuptials.” She tucks one of the jet-black strands not pulled into her low bun behind her ear.

  My mom finally looks up and gives Elana a smile before letting it fall as she turns to me.

  The rest of dinner was mostly quiet, which is strange, considering we were sitting with the guests of honor. Saint and I talked, with a few light conversations with Elana, but I could feel her discomfort and apprehension that the spotlight would be on her again, so she mostly stayed quiet. My mom talked to Mike and some of the other people around us, but she never addressed either of us for the rest of dinner.

  It’s only a few seconds after they cut their red velvet cake that normally Halle and I would have stayed for since it’s our favorite, that Saint and I prepare to make our exit, making our rounds very quickly through the party. It’s not long after, when we are outside waiting for our car to be brought around, that I hear my name in the distance. I turn around to see my mother walking toward us, and I am already not in the mood for this conversation.

  “You have to leave now?” she asks as she approaches us.

  “Why would we stay? Between Aunt Emily and your new stepson, they haven’t exactly made the night pleasant.”

  “When were you going to tell me about… this?” she asks, pointing back and forth between the two of us.

  “Well, actually, we were going to tell you this weekend, but we didn’t want to make your night about this, so we decided to wait,” I say.

  “Yet you told me anyway.” She closes her eyes and rubs at her temples. “Sebastian, I thought we talked about this. You can’t actually be serious.”

  “Be serious about what? Us being together?” I ask. “When have I ever not been serious about that?”

  “So this whole time? You’ve just been sneaking around?”

  “We weren’t sneaking around. We, as grown adults, just didn’t tell you what was going on.” Saint speaks up. “Because you didn’t understand, and evidently, you still don’t.”

  “Who would understand?” my mother exclaims.

  “You’re correct. People will definitely not understand. But I would hope, at least, our people would.”

  “I don’t. I still don’t,” my mother says. “I raised you two together. This is sick. You are siblings.”

  “Well, lucky for us, you no longer have a say in what we do with our lives.” Halle shrugs. “And frankly, Sara, I am tired of this same narrative from you. We get it. You don’t approve. But you can either be in our lives or not. But I am a grown woman now, and I don’t have to hide anything from you. Furthermore, I don’t have to be around you if you’re going to keep making us feel uncomfortable for feeling the way we do. We are not siblings, but if you have this much of a problem with us being together, you don’t have to be around us at all.”

  My mother looks at me. “So you just don’t want me in your life? Is that what this is?”

  “That’s not what I said,” Saint responds. “But if you want to put Sebastian in the middle and force him to choose, by all means, go for it.” She shrugs.

  “Mom, you make it seem like it’s us you don’t want in your life.”

  “Of course, I do.” I see the worry all over her face that I could potentially cut her out of my life. I don’t want to, but I’m not going to subject Halle to this bullshit for too much longer.

  “You don’t get me without us,” I tell her because deep down I know it’s not about Halle but about Halle’s relationship with me.

  “Sebastian, think about this. Think about what people will say.”

  “Frankly, I don’t care about what anyone says. I love her, and that’s all that matters. We are going to be together. It’s up to you to decide whether you can support that.” I notice the rental car being brought around, and I nod toward the valet and hold up my index finger. “And I can assure you that any grandchildren that I may give you are going to call her Mommy, so I would decide before then where you stand. Neither of us wants our children around people who don’t support us. Family or no family, and I mean that, Mom.” She gasps, and I drop a chaste kiss to her cheek. “Bye, Mom, I really am happy for you and Mike.” I smile at her. “Hopefully, one day, you can be happy for me too.”

  “Are you really leaving tomorrow now?” I ask after we’ve been driving for a few minutes. Neither of us said anything when we got in the car, letting the last conversation with his mother sink in.

  “No. I need more time with you. I’ll leave Monday like we planned.”

  I smile excitedly because it means we’ll have the entire day tomorrow together. “I’m guessing we aren’t going to Sara’s for brunch tomorrow?”

  “Not a chance.” He chuckles. “Want to go out tonight?”

  “Like… downtown?”

  “Or maybe just a bar?” he asks. I already know the type of night we could potentially have if we go out tonight and don’t have anywhere to be tomorrow. “You’re so stunning all dressed up, and I know we haven’t had that much fun tonight. Maybe we could change that.” He reaches over and grabs my knee, stroking it gently before dragging it up my thigh.

  “Speaking of, are you okay about what happened there? With Sara?” I hadn’t expected his comments about making me the mother of his children, and I can’t ignore the feelings of giddiness floating through me at the thought. But the rest of the conversation with his mom wasn’t exactly pleasant.

  He rubs a hand over his jaw while gripping the steering wheel with his other hand tightly. “I just have to hope that one day she’ll get over it.”

  “What if she doesn’t?”

  “Then I guess our kids won’t have grandparents at all.” He smiles at me, but I see the heaviness in his eyes from that comment, and the weight of that hits me. I’m obviously used to living in a world without parents, but the thought of my children not having any grandparents at all makes my heart hurt for them. Grandparents are supposed to love you in ways that are different from your parents, and I hate that they’ll have no one to run to when they think their father and I are being unfair or too strict. No one to teach them things that I can’t.

  Not to mention, in a world where Wild and I aren’t together, my children would at least have had him as an uncle, but in this life, he’ll be their father, leaving them without that relationship as well. I don’t realize that a tear has rolled down my cheek until I feel his thumb under my eye. “Don’t cry, baby.”

  “I just hate that idea. I’d like for them to have grandparents, and it just never really hit me that they may not.”

  We make it to Oak and Ember, a local bar that I’ve been to a handful of times when I’ve been home. For the most part, Wild and I didn’t go to many bars in town. Once we were old enough, we wanted to be free to be ourselves, and we knew we couldn’t do that in the town where we grew up and at the bars our friends would randomly frequent. But I remember the last time I was here, when one of our mutual friends was celebrating his twenty-first birthday. It was April of my junior year and Wild’s senior year, and we both decided to come home for the weekend.

  “I’m surprised you wanted to go here?” I tell him as we make our way inside, wondering why he chose this one of all the bars on the block.

  “I thought you liked this place,” he says as we find two seats behind the rich mahogany bar. He pulls out the barstool, and he helps me onto it, then drags me closer to him by my seat and presses a gentle kiss to my cheek.

  I turn toward him, letting our noses briefly graze each other. “Don’t you remember the last time we were here?” I ask him.

  “No?” He frowns, trying to recall the painful memory I have from this bar.

  “This is where you told me you were moving to Seattle.” I swallow. “You had planned to tell me that weekend, but you got too drunk, and you let it slip. I guess you were anxious about telling me… about leaving me, I guess.”

  “Fuck. That was here?”

  I nod, remembering the heated argument we’d had outside.

  Halle: 20 years old

  Sebastian: 21 years old

  He can barely keep his eyes open, but he’s absolutely going to give me some fucking answers. “Wild,” I grit out, tears springing to my eyes as I think about the man I love moving across the country in two months. “You… you said you’d never leave me. Why the fuck would you agree to move to Seattle? Without me? Or without even talking to me first?”

  “You have school. Another year,” he murmurs before pulling the bottled beer to his mouth. “You couldn’t come.”

  “Stop it,” I say, moving toward him and yanking the beer from his hand. “Enough.” He leans up against the brick building and pulls a cigarette out from his pocket. I grab the pack from him, too, because I desperately want him to quit the habit he’s picked up over the last year. “Tell me why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why would you do this to us? Move so far away from me?” My lip trembles, and while I’m not as drunk as Sebastian, I still feel the effects of all the alcohol I’ve consumed tonight, making me more emotional than usual.

  “WHAT US?” he yells, and my eyes widen in response to his outburst. My mouth falls open because not only has he never yelled at me, but I’ve also never heard him speak that way about our relationship. There’s always been an us. For as long as I could remember, it was him and me. He’s been the one constant in my life since I was four years old. The one person I could depend on, and now he was just… leaving?

  “Sebastian, what are you saying?” I use his name so he knows I’m serious.

  He rubs a hand over his face and lets out a sigh. “I’m sorry I yelled,” he says before he continues. “I got a job, and… this will be good for me.”

  “I didn’t think being that far away from me would be good for you,” I retort, thinking about every conversation we’ve ever had regarding that exact subject.

  “It was never going to work between us, Saint. No one will ever understand. You deserve better than all of this. Better than me. Better than a forbidden relationship, no matter how much we want it.”

  I move toward him, placing my hands on his cheeks and forcing him to look me in the eyes. Tears are rolling down my face at the thought of not being with him, and I swear I can feel my heart breaking in my chest. “Please don’t do this. Don’t… leave me. I love you,” I whisper. “Don’t you love me?”

  “With everything I am,” he slurs. “But sometimes that’s not enough.”

  “Shit, baby. Let’s go. We don’t need to be here. I forgot about that. I think I block that night out of my memory.” He grabs my hands, revealing my tattoo on my wrist, and rubs his lips over it. “Remember what happened the second I got out there?” I don’t respond because, of course, I do, but I want him to say it. “I regretted it and called you immediately, telling you how much I missed you and how sorry I was for leaving you like that.” He kisses my knuckles one by one before resting my open palm against his cheek. “I’ll never stop being sorry for that. For starting a life so far away from you when you were always the center of it,” he says before pressing a kiss to my open palm.

  “I guess I’m sorry for not coming there after I graduated and going to grad school in New York.” I briefly considered moving to Seattle to be with him, but a part of me—a part I often hated on the nights when I missed him so much—didn’t want to follow a man. He’d made a decision for him, and I wanted to do the same. So I moved to New York for business school, which was a loose plan Wild and I had made in high school. He was the one who up and changed everything without talking to me first.

  Why should I follow him when it wasn’t what I wanted?

  “I’m not upset about that. I’m proud of you for going after what was best for you and your future career.”

  The bartender, a man on the shorter side with tattoos covering every inch of skin that’s exposed except on his face, approaches us, and I order a dirty martini. Wild orders a scotch along with two shots of tequila for us. “So we’re taking an Uber to the hotel, then.” I giggle just as the bartender puts the shots in front of us.

  “It’s only ten minutes from here. Either that or we walk,” he tells me, reminding me how terrible my sense of direction is because I definitely hadn’t realized that.

  The bartender is back with our other drinks, setting them down in front of us and taking Wild’s card before retreating to the center.