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“I know that too.”
“The rehearsal is tomorrow. The wedding is Saturday. You can’t pack your things and disappear because you’re angry with me.”
“Watch me.”
Bliss stared at me like I’d struck her. “You would really do that?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. I know I can’t stand in this room while both of you explain why loving me gave you permission to decide which truths I could survive.”
“We didn’t do this because loving you gave us permission,” Aura said. “We did it because we were scared.”
“So was I in the study. Fear didn’t excuse my silence.”
“No,” she said. “It didn’t.”
“Then stop asking yours to excuse this.”
“I’m not asking you to forgive us tonight.”
“You’re asking me to stay where you can watch what I do next.”
Aura flinched. “That isn’t fair.”
“Fair?” My voice echoes as I look at my best friends, my soul mates. “You kept life altering information from me and you want to say it’s not fair. Fuck fair, it left the fucking chat, Aura!”
Bliss wrapped both arms around herself. “Please don’t leave before we talk again.”
“You are talking now, I have said enough.”
“You’re furious.”
I run my fingers through my hair incapable of holding still. “I am past furious. I am just shy of violent.”
“You just learned something devastating.”
I look at them but stop listening.
“Give yourself an hour before you make a decision capable of destroying a friendship you’ll still want tomorrow.”
“I’m so fucking tired of everyone deciding when I’m allowed to act.”
“I’m asking you to wait,” Aura said. “I’m not ordering you.”
“I know the difference. I also know both of you spent months waiting for the perfect time to trust me, and apparently it never came.”
Bliss covered her mouth, but a sob escaped through her fingers.
Every instinct trained into me since childhood demanded that I cross the room, wrap my arms around her, and apologize until her pain stopped requiring anything from her. I remained where I was.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you too.” My throat tightened, but I didn’t let the words disappear. “I can love you and acknowledge your betrayal.”
“Cee...”
“I can understand why you were afraid and still believe you were wrong.”
“You can.”
