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  “Sorry, Olivia, I’m just…” I drag my eyes off the other table. “I’m here. What’s going on?”

  “I’m trying to see if you’re ready to get out of here. I’m done eating.”

  “You haven’t eaten a damn thing, Olivia.” I roll my eyes. “Get some ice cream in you.”

  I don’t want to leave yet. I’m not ready. I’m still watching the show unfold in front of me, and I don’t want it to end. The red head might have been rude back there, but she seems like she’s being polite enough to her friend. A little cold, perhaps, but overall, she is holding it together well.

  “What the fuck, Isaac? What the hell is going on? Who are you looking at?”

  Olivia twists around in her seat to see and I think she clocks on to who I’m looking at. Her face flames with red and she looks absolutely furious. By the time her eyes meet mine again I know the jig is up. Me and Olivia aren’t heading to bed tonight… and actually, I’m okay with that.

  “You’re a fucking asshole, Isaac, I hope you know that. I know you’re a bit of a playboy, but doing it right in front of my face is just bullshit, and I think you damn well know it.” She grabs her bag and rises to her feet. “I’m out of here and I don’t want you to follow me. Or call me ever again. We’re through here.”

  Of course, she wants me to follow her. She wouldn’t have said that otherwise, but I’m not going to. I’m relieved that she’s leaving, I don’t want to have anything to do with her.

  I sit back in my seat and finish my drink, continuing to openly stare at the red head. The real woman that I want to go home with tonight. It looks like her date is about to wrap up, which might be time for me to go and make my appearance known again. I don’t know which way it’s going to go, but I’m sure as hell that I’m going to give it a try.

  Isaac Janie is known for trying, for taking risks, never turning my back on a challenge.

  With a confident swagger, I make my way over to their table, not even caring as people stare at me like I’m a bit crazy. The red head sees me. Her eyes drag up and she narrows her gaze at me, still looking mad. Good, I like her madness. Especially with her. She’s fiery as hell and I can’t help wanting to drag that side out of her again.

  “Hey there.” I lean my hands down on the table and dart my eyes between them both. Yep, I’m starting to see what she was talking about before, he’s too boring for her, they would never be a good match. “Good to see you again.”

  “Again?” the guy asks, bristling. “What do you mean again?”

  I can almost see him trying to work out if I’m a threat or a business connection. It’s hilarious because he doesn’t want to be rude. That’s something I can work with, to see how far I can push him. Especially because my red haired friend isn’t saying anything yet. She’s just glaring at me in freaking silence.

  “Hey there. I’m Isaac Janie.” His eyes light up. Of course he’s heard of me. “Good to meet you.”

  “Oh, I’m Will. Will Mayer. I’m an accountant at…”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s why you’re being so boring then.” I dismiss him. “You’re boring your date.”

  His face contorts, I can see a range of confused emotions cross his face. This is a shock, he doesn’t know how to take it. “Wha… what do you mean? Boring, who? I don’t get this at all…”

  I point to his date. “She’s bored as fuck of you. I heard her out on the phone, talking to her sister.”

  He glances between us both. “Is this shit for real? Are you being serious, right now? Because…”

  “I think that you should stop embarrassing yourself and just leave.” I pull out my wallet and toss down some notes on the table. “I’ll even pay for your meal to make sure that you aren’t out of pocket. I can’t make up for the wasted time, but I can save you a few dollars, which should help you as you go home…”

  “Who the fuck do you think you are?” he snaps, finally cracking. “You can’t come over here and throw money at me, telling me that my date isn’t interested in me. That’s some serious shit.”

  “Tell him,” I insist the red head, pointing at Will. “Tell him what’s going on right now.”

  The red heads stares me down, trying to kill me with her eyes. Fuck, I love that look. It’s so hot. She’s sexy as hell when she’s mad and probably even more of a demon in the sack. I picture incredible make up sex, sending my head spinning. Fuck, I want that so bad.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” she whispers in almost a demonic voice. “What is this? You can’t keep your nose out my business for even a second, can you? I don’t even know you. What the hell is your issue?”

  “I just want to know if you want to leave with someone who you might actually like.”

  “Are you suggesting that I like you?” She rakes her disgusted gaze up and down my body, which makes me want to laugh. “I think that I have made my opinion about you very clear. I don’t like you.”

  “Tell him to get out of here,” Will insists, seeing this as a win. “To stop being so damn rude.”

  “Oh no.” She falls back from the table, gathering up her belongings as she goes. “I don’t like you either. You have been rude to me all night long, you haven’t shown any sign of being pleasant, and you haven’t asked me any questions about myself aside from my tattoo… you’re an asshole, but it seems like this place is full of them tonight.” She grabs some money out of her bag. “There, I’m paying my share, not using you. But, I’m also not trying to show off my feminist values… just paying my half because it’s the right thing to do.”

  With that, she turns on her heels and stalks off, her heels clipping behind her as she goes. I tilt my head to one side and stare unashamedly at her as she goes. Of course, I would much prefer her to be leaving with me, especially to see the look on Will’s face as I take her away, but it was fun anyway.

  “What the fuck did you do that for?” Will yells, his hands waving in the air in frustration. “You ruined my date. Why the hell would you do that? What did you get out of it? Nothing!”

  “I think you’re the one that wrecked it. I just made it a little more interesting.” I shrug, not seeing anything that I’ve done wrong. “I made you all be a bit more honest with one another, that’s all.”

  Will shakes his head and storms off too, but I can tell he isn’t going after his date, there wouldn’t be any point. She’s never going anywhere near him ever again. I doubt I’ll ever see her again either, which is a shame, but if I ever do by some coincidence, I will make sure that she ends up in my bed.

  Chapter Three

  Lexi

  My tee shirt hangs down to my belly button, grazing my piercing there, and my skinny jeans cling tightly to my waist as I walk. I couldn’t wear one of my signature dresses today, not with the mood I’m in. Last night was a freaking disaster. Every time I think about it, I want to scream. As dates go, it has to be one of the worst in history. It just went from bad to worse, without me even doing anything. What the hell?

  But now, as I stand outside the hospital building, knowing what I’m about to face inside, all of that pales into insignificance. How can any of that stuff matter to me when I’m back here? I should be used to it by now, I have been visiting the hospital a lot since I was eighteen years old. But it doesn’t get any easier.

  I take in a deep breath and force myself to step inside. There’s a tremor racing through my body as I go, but I keep those legs moving. I have to. I don’t stop at the reception desk, I don’t need to. I know exactly where I’m going. I could get to this room with my eyes closed.

  “Jane?” I lean in, checking inside the room before I step inside. I quickly find her, lying on the bed, looking pale and sick. I gulp back, trying to swallow down the thick ball of emotion that lies there, but it remains. Seeing my beautiful, confident sister withering away to the same damn disease that killed our mother, only a few years later, destroys me. I hate seeing her this way, it isn’t her, it’s horrible.

  It’s always been
me and her, especially since mom died, we haven’t ever had our father around, so I can’t stand the idea of losing her as well. I know what it did to my mom, what this is likely to do to Jane as well, but I need to remain strong. She absolutely needs me to give her the strength.

  “Hey there, Lexi.” She pushes herself into a sitting position, wincing through the pain. But she pushes it down, she doesn’t moan, she never does. I’m sure that Jane does that just for me. “How’s it going?”

  She shouldn’t be asking me that, it should be the other way around. But I know Jane, she doesn’t want to talk about being sick. She lives it every minute of every single day, so she wants to hear about me. To live vicariously through me. That’s why I went on the damn date, because normally I’m pretty boring.

  “Yeah, it’s good.” I flop on to the chair beside her and smile. “Aside from my nightmare night.”

  “Ooh, I have been so excited for you to come here and tell me all about it. It sounds like it was a drama there.”

  I can’t help but smile. “Drama doesn’t even cover it. It was unlike anything else. Will was… well, I don’t know what I saw in him in high school. He’s a complete and utter idiot.”

  “He was just the cool boy back then, the sexy jock. He didn’t need a personality and unfortunately, he’s carried that attitude with him through his entire life afterwards. He’ll never be anything but dull.”

  “Yeah, that’s true.” I shiver. “I’m just glad that I never have to see him again.”

  “How did you leave it? Was it super awkward at the end?”

  I roll my eyes. “You have no idea. So, when I was on the phone with you, it turns out that some guy was listening in, which was super creepy. Then he started calling me out on what I said on the phone.”

  “He did?” Jane looks far too excited about this idea. “What did he say? That’s so weird.”

  “He said that I was rude, and that my date probably didn’t like me much either.”

  “Wow… what a douche bag. That’s pretty hilarious though, isn’t it?”

  “It wasn’t.” I shake my head hard. “Because then he came over to the table and told Will that he was boring me, and basically asked me to leave with him… like I would ever do that.”

  But Jane doesn’t look as outraged as I expect her to. She’s actually smiling. “That’s so exciting. Kinda sexy, don’t you think? He was handsome, I bet.” I half shrug, like his looks have anything to do with it. “You should have gone home with him. That would have been so much fun.”

  “Are you kidding me? Not a chance. Maybe he was handsome in a suit type way…”

  “Ooh, I love a suit guy. Especially one with that cockiness. He sounds like a good time.”

  “No. Not a chance. Not for me. I was already on a terrible date with a guy in a suit anyway. I didn’t need to make it worse by going home with some other guy in a suit.”

  “But you ended up getting no action last night,” Jane groans as if in agony. “I was waiting for all kinds of sexy stories. I wanted to imagine it for myself because it’s been such a long time.”

  Guilt crushes me, like it always does. I want to be the one who inherited this illness, not Jane. It isn’t fair. She’s the clever beautiful one who has it all going for her. I’m the one who’s stuck in a bit of a rut, doesn’t really have any direction, career or otherwise. She was supposed to be a lawyer, someone sharp, fiery and fun. She isn’t supposed to be lying in a bed with tubes hanging out of her. It isn’t right.

  I would have done anything to trade places with my mom, and now I’m in the same position again.

  “I will get you some sexy stories soon,” I promise her, even if I have to make them up to help her.

  “Good, because I miss having a man to cuddle with… and more. I miss having a boyfriend.”

  This is another area where Jane has always been better than me. She hasn’t picked shitty guys like I have, who treat her like crap. She had a nice guy, ever since high school. The only reason they broke up is because he got a job opportunity in Australia, his dream job, and she forced him to go. I think the idea was for them to go for the long distance love, but then she started to get sick, and even though she didn’t know what it was at the time, she let him slide away. I know what Jane is like and I bet he doesn’t even know what’s going on.

  I would tell him if I thought it was the right thing to do, but it really isn’t my place.

  “I’m sorry,” I reply meekly. “I wish there was something that I could do to help you…”

  “No, no, I didn’t mean it like that. Sorry, I’m just having a moment, that’s all.”

  I grab her hand and stare deeply into her eyes. “Jane, you can always gripe to me about anything.”

  “I know, but I don’t like to. I spend half my life bitching inside my head, it gets boring after a while.”

  Sickness swirls in the pit of my stomach. My head aches with agony. I would give anything to swap places. I even silently beg for that to happen even though I know that it’s useless.

  “Do you remember that day,” she says, suddenly changing the subject. “When you were six or seven and I was ten. When we went out into the field with a tent, to camp.”

  “Oh, without telling Mom?” I laugh despite myself. “Yeah, what a good idea that was.”

  “We thought that we were so cool with our bag of bread that we would eat for dinner and our one sleeping bag. I don’t know what the idea of that was… but then Mom found us just after dark and she kicked our asses.”

  “Oh yeah, and we tried to tell her that we were out hunting for fairies.”

  “She wouldn’t believe us that we were fairy hunters, would she? What a joke.”

  We go on to reminisce some more, going over our childhood days, then on to the high school memories. We weren’t close then, we grew into very different people. She had her group of friends that kept her busy, and I remained quiet… but throughout, we remained friends. When we did spend time together, it was the best, and that’s why we’re the best of friends now. We just understand each other in a way that no one else can ever get.

  The loss that I’ll feel if anything ever happens to her will kill me, I just know it. I can’t do this on my own, I can’t cope without her, I don’t have it in me. I’m not strong enough.

  As Jane sleeps, all I can do is watch her. As soon as she started to feel tired, she told me to go home and to get some rest, and I will… but not right now. I just want to be in this moment with her for a little while longer. As she sleeps, Jane looks calm and angelic, all the pain is gone. She looks more like the her I remember, that I have spent my entire life looking up to. For a moment, I can just forget that anything else is happening.

  “Ah, Lexi!” The door flies open, and Jane’s doctor comes through it. “You’re here.”

  “Hi, Doctor Brady, how are things with you?”

  I wipe a few stray tears away and smile at him. He sees me falling apart all the time. Just for once I would like to face him with the strength that I show the rest of the world. He doesn’t ever judge me for it, of course, but he’s awesome like that. I’m so glad that he’s here for Jane and she’s in good hands.

  “Good… actually, I’m glad that you’re here. There’s something that I want to talk to you about. I have already discussed it with Jane, but I’m certain she wouldn’t have told you.” My heart almost stops beating, I feel utterly dreadful, like this is going to be the worst news ever. “There’s a new experimental treatment on offer that Jane is actually a perfect candidate for. She won’t put herself forward because of the cost, but…”

  “But it could help?” A bubble of hope blooms in my chest. “Because if it could help…”

  “I have some information for you. It might be good if you take it home to have a look through it.”

  I grab all the paperwork from him and smile. This is good, exactly the break I need. This will help in pulling me out of my rut. I haven’t had anything to work towards, that’s what it
is. But now I do. It doesn’t matter to me how much this treatment costs, I will make it work somehow. I don’t have to work at the restaurant forever, waitressing barely suits me anyway, I will get something that pays more, a lot more probably, and I will ensure that Jane gets this treatment. If there is any chance that it could save her life, I am going to do it.

  I need my sister, I will do whatever I can to have her back in my life. Anything.

  “Thank you, Doctor Brady, that’s really awesome news. I will get back to you about this as soon as I can.”

  He nods and smiles, knowing that I will do the right thing. He likes Jane and wants her to live. We all do. And now that I have some power over this, nothing will stop me.

  Chapter Four

  Isaac

  “What’s going on, Charlie?” I cry out as I take a chair in the conference room. “What’s so important that you had to call me into this big important meeting first thing on a Monday morning, huh?”

  He sits up straighter in his seat, trying to brush off my cockiness, but I know it gets to him. He thinks that to do good business, you have to act in a certain way all the time. He’s a stuffy older guy, just like my father. I’m young, bringing fresh blood into the equation, showing them a new way of doing things. He might not like it, but I don’t give a shit. It is what it is. Shit still gets done around here.

  “It isn’t first thing on a Monday morning. It’s eleven AM. Most people have been here since eight.”

  “And things are getting done, aren’t they? Marketing is being created? I am a great manager. The flock of sheep don’t need their shepherd around to herd them all the time. It’s fine.”

  Charlie’s lips turn down into a frown. I know that he thinks I only have the managerial job because my father owns the company, and he might be right about that, but who the fuck cares? I’m where I am, and he’s my father’s right hand man. We’re in our positions, we just need to make the best of it and deal with one another.