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Me: Is that Forrest the same Forrest who’s Damion’s friend?

My Dece: You know him??

Know is a stretch. Damion’s a billionaire who moved into Amarella sometime last year. He hires me for odd jobs, like most everyone else who sticks around in this town. I guess it makes sense that December’s parents would try to hook her up with a billionaire’s friend.

What doesn’t make sense is why Forrest would accept.

It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude he’s only interested in Mirabelle’s friend, Fawn.

Me: Met him once on a job. Decent guy. Needs meds.

She sends me a few laughing emojis, and I find myself…settling. She’s okay. Everything is okay. Goodness.

Tension melts out of me, and I remember how to breathe for the first time in hours.

My Dece: We’re planning to help each other out. So long as he’s helping us, he has a reason to stay in town with the girl he likes.

Me: Helping us?

My Dece: We’re going to fake date so my parents don’t bring anyone else in to meet me before I can figure out a way to tell them about you.

Tension returns, heavy, hard, and fast.

Me: Fake date.

My Dece: I know. It’s a trope. And usually it would mean Forrest and I are the end couple, but it’s really just buying us time. I’ll have excuses to come see you if I’m “going on a date with Forrest.”

Moments pass while I try to parse through this situation in my brain. My girl is going to be fake dating someone else. I cannot express how deeply I loathe even just the idea of that.

My Dece: Are you okay?

No. I’m not. I wish her parents would just treat her like an adult capable of making her own decisions. I wish she didn’t feel cornered into crap like this. But what good does it do her to say that?

I lucked out with my parents. They’re supportive and loving and safe. I can tell them anything, any mistake, any decision, and they won’t make me feel any way about it. They won’t try and force me to do what they think is best regardless of what I want. They are there for me, on my terms, offering aid without demand. Heck, their response to Alister was completely accepting when he, a week before he planned a wedding, met them for the first time and said he wanted to marry August. Their only comment was if that’s what she wants, welcome to the family.

No judgment.

No pressure.

December’s never had that. December’s lived in a completely different world.

And it’s one that’s scarier than anything I’ve ever known.

So.

Am I okay?

I’m at least better than she’s ever had the luxury of being.

Me: Yeah.

I’ll be okay. Because if this is December’s decision, if this is how she’s handling her parents, my job is to respect that, not logic my way around it.

They’re her parents. People she loves. People she doesn’t want to lose.

I guess… I guess I just wish her devotion to me went the slightest bit further, to a point where she’d look two of the only other people in this world that she loves in the eyes and tell them where to shove off.

It’s unreasonable to want more from her when the depth of her affection is already as all-encompassing as it is.