Mils was right behind Arthur and let out a yelp when she assessed the situation. It did look incriminating but come on! It was funny more than anything, they couldn't possibly think there was anything weird going on, could they?

"Spencer, give me your sister and go to your room," Mils commanded.

He did not need to be asked twice and fled the scene. So did Arthur, after mumbling something that sounded like "I can't believe it."

I ran after him, but Mils stepped into the doorframe to block my way.

"Don't you think you should at least put a shirt on?" She said, venom oozing from every single pore of her skin.

Furious, I slipped into the shirt that was wrapped around my torso, not giving a rat's ass about her seeing my tits. She clicked her tongue disapprovingly when she saw my piercings.

She noticed what shirt I had put on and barred my way again. With her arm, this time.

"Stay away from my son," she threatened.

I looked her up and down, biting my tongue very hard. I took the high road and did not engage in a verbal fight. She was defending her kid after all. I did, however, shoulder with more force than necessary on my way out the room.

I found Arthur pacing like a maniac in the backyard.

"It's impossible. It's impossible. It's impossible," he was repeating tirelessly. His hands were in his hair, running through it in frenzy.

When he spotted me, his trajectory changed and he marched straight towards me.

"I can't believe you did that to me. Again!" He shrieked, pointing an accusatory finger at me.

"Arthur, listen, this is just—"

"With my nephew! He's just turned eighteen, he's barely legal!"

"It's not what—"

"And in front of Jamie! She's fifteen months old, for God's sake, she's a baby!"

"Arthur, seriously, will you listen to me?"

But he was not in a place to listen. He was in a place to spiral and hurt himself as well as others. And boy did he manage to do it.

"What's your angle, Abril? Are you planning to fuck your way through my whole family tree?"

I slapped him in the face so hard I made his lip bleed. I wasn't even sorry. He couldn't tell me he loved me one minute, and the next say such horrible things to me.

The slap hurt my hand, I had to rub the sting away. Then my eyes started to burn. I could feel them. The tears. They were coming.

And they came. Slow at first, one drop after the other, then it was a torrent coursing down my cheeks. I was so hurt, so enraged, so disgusted by Arthur's words. He finally took one look at me and his whole face morphed into something else. The anger was gone in less than a second, replaced by concern.

He licked the blood off his lip with the tip of his tongue and took a step closer to me. When he tentatively wrapped his arms around me, I didn't push him away. It's quite ironic how, in life, the person who can hurt you the most is also the person you want to go to for comfort when you are in pain. I hated Arthur's guts for saying that to me, and yet I loved the feeling of his embrace. I was pathetic.

"This is the first time you cry for me," he said while placing a kiss on the crown of my head.

I looked up. He had not just said that. "No, it's not, you fucking idiot!"

His jaw dropped, and not because I had insulted him. "What do you mean?"

This time, I did pull away from his embrace. His arms fell limply to his sides.

"It doesn't matter! Is that really something you're happy about? That I'm crying for you? Do you want me to cry?"

"No! But it is a relief that you feel some kind of emotion over me. It's frustrating to always come second after a damn corpse." A heartbeat. "I didn't mean that."

It was like time had stopped. I concentrated very hard on stopping my tears, Arthur didn't deserve them.

There was not much I could say after that. I went to sit on it on the bench by the swimming pool, not quite trusting my legs to keep carrying me much longer.

Arthur tried to sit next to me but one look from me deterred him. He sighed.

"I'm sorry, Abril. I truly am. That comment about Josh was out of line."

I waved a dismissive hand. I didn't care much for anything he had to say after his last comment. And the fact that he was not apologizing for accusing me of 'fucking his whole family tree' didn't go over my head.

"Look," he tried again, "I know I've been rude, and I apologize for that. But isn't there any part of you that can understand where it came from? I've just run into you, essentially bare chest, flirting with my nephew. Not to stir painful memories we're supposed to have moved past, but surely you can appreciate what similar situation it reminds me of."

I scoffed. I actually did understand, it looked bad and I had an awful precedent in my name. But I had done nothing wrong with Spencer. Arthur should have asked for an explanation rather than immediately jumping to the worst conclusion and hurting me in the process.

"Get out of my sight," I demanded.

"Abril . . ." he pleaded.

"I'm serious. Go away. I need to be alone."

He did not insist. When he walked around the bench, he put his hand on my shoulder and kissed the top of my head again. "I love you," he murmured before taking his leave.

He didn't see it, but another batch of tears fell silently down my cheeks when he said that. I loved him too. So much it hurt. So much there was no coming back, even when he was being a dick. Josh never was a dick to me. How the hell could I have fallen in love for someone who would disrespect his memory?

"Please corazón, forgive me. I still love you. I swear I do," I whispered to the sky, throat constricted, somehow hoping for an answer.

He'll never replace you, I added internally.

That's what happened when you slept with people repeatedly. You caught feelings and then, inevitably, they hurt you. Josh had hurt me by dying, Arthur was hurting me by not trusting me.

"Abby?"

I looked up. Spencer was standing next to the bench.

"God, you're crying too. My teenage friends are less dramatic than the two of you."

I laughed through my tears. "You know what, Spencer? I have no issue believing that. Even I was less dramatic when I was a teenager."

Because I was with Josh. Everything was simple and smooth-sailing with him.

"Anyway, just to let you know that Arthur is inside and I told him the whole story, so he doesn't imagine the worst." Too late for that. "He's crying now, which seems wild to me. Nothing creepy happened, he should be relieved."

I laughed joylessly. "He's not crying because he is worried I did something with you, he's crying because he said something hurtful to me and he feels guilty about it."

"Huh. Can you not forgive him? I'm sure he didn't mean it."

I chuckled louder and shook my head. "Oh, Spencer. I wish it was that easy. He was very rude to me, I can't just brush it off."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but Uncle Arthur is . . . special, you know?"

That was the understatement of a century.

"I have noticed," I confirmed.

"Okay but how much do you actually know about him? You've only scratched the surface but I've known him for years. I've seen him say terrible things many times, he's awful at social interactions, but he doesn't have bad intentions. I know it's not fair to expect you to just accept that, but hey, you signed up for that when you started dating him. He's a moron but he has such a kind heart, I swear he didn't mean to hurt you. It's obvious he's in love with you, and you with him. Don't let his moronity ruin this."

"Spencer, I . . ."

"No," he cut me off. "I will not accept anything else than 'Spencer, please go get Arthur so we can reconcile'."

"Spenc—"

"Nuh-uh. Not taking any other answer."

I couldn't help but laugh again. Teenage wisdom and stubbornness were something to behold.

"Okay. Just bring him in."

With a bright smile and a victorious strut, he went back inside and, a few minutes later, Arthur sat next to me.

"So, Spencer told me what happened upstairs and—"

"I would have told you the same story if you had bothered to ask me instead of jumping to conclusions."

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I—Yes you're right, and I'm sorry about that."

"It's not just that, Arthur. You can't tell me you forgave me for what happened with your dad and then throw it in my face when you have the slightest doubt. Either you forgive me, or you don't, but if you do, you don't get to bring up the story just to hurt me. Do you realize how disgusting what you said to me was? 'Fucking your whole family tree?' Seriously?"

"I—I know. That was unacceptable, I'm so sorry."

"But sorry is not enough!" I lashed out. "You said it, I can never unhear it. And now I'm stuck with a man who thinks the worst of me and insults the love of my life."

I put my hands over my face to hide the tears that couldn't stop falling. I had gone from tearless cold bitch to oversensitive crybaby quite fast, hadn't I?

Arthur pried my fingers open and held my hands away from my face.

"Abril, what I said came from a deeply insecure part of myself that felt way too easily threatened. I swear to you, Josh has my utmost respect, and I wouldn't be with you, and love you, if I really thought you wanted to be involved with my whole family."

He pinched my chin between his thumb and index finger and tilted my head up. His eyes locked mine in.

"And you're not stuck with me," he added. "You're free to go whenever you want."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh please! Don't play stupid with me, you know I'm not going anywhere!"

"I hope you won't, but if there's one thing I know for sure when it comes to you, Abril, is that I can never be sure of anything."

"Like I said, you're a fucking idiot!"

"And why is that?"

"You said so yourself, I'm literally crying for you right now, just like I cried like a weeping widow when you left me after the fundraiser, and so many other times after that. I had sex with you more than once, I call you my boyfriend, I let you buy me a freaking ring, and I even told you about Josh! I do nothing but show you all kinds of emotions, and yet you keep being unsatisfied. You keep being surprised when I do something slightly more ostentatious than usual, and you keep being disappointed when my feelings are not as obvious as yours. Just because I don't show my feelings for you like you do doesn't mean I don't have any, okay? And each time you question that, it hurts. I've committed to this relationship, I'm not planning on going anywhere, even if, on days like today, you make me feel like I should."

He smiled. We were in the middle of an argument, a crisis dare I say, and that stupid moron smiled.

"You love me," he declared. It was not even a question.

"Really? That's the only thing you're taking from everything I've just said?"

"You're not denying it."

"I'm not agreeing either. And if I did, I'm not ready to say it anyway."

"You don't have to. I know it. I feel it."

"Shut up."

"I love you too."

He kissed me on the lips. I could feel where my slap had cut him. I dragged my teeth across the wound. He jerked away.

"Ow!"

"I'd say I'm sorry for slapping you, but you deserved it."

"I can't argue with you on that one."

He put his hand on my neck, his fingers holding my head steady while he rested his forehead against mine.

"We're both rusty in the relationship department, it seems. But I really want this to work, Abril."

"Me too."

His lips met mine again.

"Do you want to go home? We can drive back right now."

"What about Jamie? I thought Mils needed us to babysit her."

"She does. But given the situation, she would understand if we needed to cancel. From what I heard, she hasn't been nice to you either."

"Well, no, but she thought she was protecting Spencer from me, so I can forgive that. We committed to helping her and she made plans accordingly. We can't just bail."

"These words, my darling, are music to my ears."

"You will take full responsibility for the baby, though."

"That seems like a fair request."

* * *

We stayed the afternoon at Mils's place. She apologized for getting the wrong impression and talking to me like she did. I accepted the apology, and she went on with her day while Arthur put Jamie down for her nap and we watched TV. Spencer spent most of the afternoon with us, making me wonder why he wasn't babysitting his sister instead of us, but then left to meet some friends.

Mils came back with a fresh haircut, manicured nails, and a somewhat more rested face. She thanked us from the bottom of her heart for our help, apologized again, and then we were on our way back home.

Halfway through, Arthur pulled over to get some gas. After he paid for it, he leaned his head through the open window on my side of the car.

"So, erm, are you still in the mood for it to be my day or did you want to call it?"

I hated losing a challenge way too much to call it.

"I'm fine. What did you have in mind?"

"Well . . ."

He looked around the inside of his car and, when I did not get it, he lifted his key in front of my face.

"You're driving us home," he announced.

That sentence paralyzed me. "No," I said firmly. Challenge or not, driving was off-limits.

"I promise it'll be easy, it's just the highway for a while. I can take over once we're deeper in the city."

How did he not get that?

"Cari, the last time I drove, I killed someone and I ended up in a coma. I'm not doing this."

"I understand. We've had a rough day, so I won't push it. But I will push you at some point, Abril. You might want to prepare for that. I understand that driving is very traumatic for you but you can't let it rule your life."

"But—"

"No buts. You're off the hook today but I will ask again."

I wasn't sure whether I wanted to yell at him for not respecting my personal boundaries, or hug him because he was determined to get me out of a bad place. I did neither and he drove us back to his place.

"I made a reservation for dinner," he said when I was just about to get rid of my clothes and lounge on his couch.

"Oh, that's interesting. Where are we going?"

He said a name I had never heard before. "It's a restaurant on the rooftop of a hotel on Melrose. It's supposed to be the best in LA."

"I see. I don't suppose I can wear sweatpants, there?"

"You cannot. In fact," he entered his walk-in closet momentarily and came back out with a cardboard box. A dress box. "I bought you a dress for the occasion."

He put the box in my arms and looked at me like an enamored parent on Christmas morning, watching their kids open presents.

"Before you complain, darling, this is still my day. You don't get to say no."

"I'll do what you want all right, but I will complain about it. There was no 'no-complaining' clause in our arrangement."

"I'm pretty sure there was but that ship sailed the moment you set foot on that rowing boat." He winked and a crooked smile tugged at one side of his lips.

I opened the box to reveal a full-length red dress. It had a sweetheart neckline, off-the-shoulders sleeves, and a sheath skirt that flared out from my knees. There was a pair of white elbow gloves to wear with it.

"That's Vivian's red dress from Pretty Woman," I told him, although I knew he'd done it on purpose.

"Indeed. You mentioned that movie a few times, so I finally watched it. It was terrible, by the way, but I liked the dress she wore in that opera scene, and I imagined you would too."

"I do. However, I can't believe you didn't like the movie. It's basically us!"

"How on Earth can you think that?"

"Hello? Sexy, promiscuous lady falls for rich businessman, is constantly judged by his peers and never quite fits in his world. Doesn't that ring a bell? And now that you've given me that dress, we couldn't be more similar. Did you also get a jewelry store to lend me a diamond necklace?"

He looked down in embarrassment. "I don't have strong enough connections to get a valuable necklace lent to me for free, but I did rent one out for you."

"Aw, I love when you're being thorough."

"But I don't think we're anything like this couple in Pretty Woman. I never paid you for one. You stayed with me because you couldn't get enough of me, not because of my money."

I snort-laughed. "You did offer to pay me to go to that stupid dinner with your colleagues."

"But you refused. Proving once more that you're with me for my charming personality."

"Your charming personality is making me want to sew your mouth shut right now."

"Say what you want, I still think we're better than that Vivian and whatever the name of that man is."

I giggled. "His name is Edward."

"Huh. That's actually my middle name."

Okay, universe. Will you stop sending me signals already? I got it!

"One, are you serious? Two, how am I only finding this now?"

"Yes, and because you never asked."

I asked him if he had ever heard of Twilight. Surprisingly, he had.

"I was a strong Edward Cullen stan, back in the day," I confessed.

"See? We're meant to be."

And maybe we were.

He put a way too extravagant, way too heavy, way too expensive diamond necklace around my neck before we got a taxi to the restaurant.

Just like in movies, and just like a few decades ago, I was handed a menu that didn't show the prices, and the wine menu was presented to Arthur only. He ordered red and snatched the menu from my hands.

"Let's be fully old-school. I'm ordering for you, you don't get to pick."

"Hell no!"

He tutted. "Now, now. Don't be causing a scene. What I say is law, remember?"

It was obvious he was enjoying that way too much.

"You'd better order me something I like."

"Of course, I'm not a monster. How do you feel about snails? I'd love to stay in theme."

It took all my strength to suppress a gag. He saw it and smirked.

"I'm kidding, darling. I'll order you a steak just how you like it. Barely cooked."

"Thanks, babe."

"Uh-oh. I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

"More than you know," I replied cryptically.

He clinked his glass of wine against mine and called for a waiter.

The meal was surprisingly pleasant. Once I got used to every single employee kissing our asses, I really started to enjoy myself. It was addictive to be on the receiving end of flattery.

We finished our dinner, had the waiter take a picture of us on the terrace – it was a rooftop after all – and, not-so-slightly buzzed, we took a taxi back to his place.

We stumbled into the hall, more affected by our wine than we thought we were. When I tripped over him for the gazillionth time, and when he caught me right before I fell over for the gazillionth time, I did not straighten up. I stayed in his arms and I looked at him. He was wearing one of his rare carefree smiles. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards me. I did not kiss him. But he kissed me. And it was truly magical. We had kissed many times before, but that felt like a first kiss. It was intense, and full of excitement, and enthusiastic.

"Wait, before I lose total control of the situation, there is one last thing I wanted to do today," he said.

"Go for a swim naked?"

"There are two last things I wanted to do today," he amended as he kicked his shoes off and started undoing his bow tie. "I'll race you. If I win, you can't say no to the last thing."

I accepted his deal and got busy with removing my clothes.

"I'll just take that away from you," Arthur said while removing the diamond necklace from my neck. "We really don't want to damage it."

Then we resumed getting undressed. I was fully nude just as he only had his socks left. I started running towards the sliding door, Arthur in my wake.

"Nuh-uh," I said while I fumbled with the door locks, "you have to be totally naked. No socks, no glasses."

He groaned but complied. I finally managed to open the door and ran for the pool.

He zoomed past me. A flash of white and orange is all I saw before he cannonballed into the water, splashing me copiously.

"Looks like I win, darling."

I jumped in after him.

We kissed, we touched, we even looked at the stars.

"Tomorrow," he said in all seriousness, "I'm finally making love to you in that pool while we watch the sunset."

That sentence alone set my lady bits on fire.

"I'll need to start writing a book with all your best quotes if you keep being so adorable."

He laughed in response.

As we got cold, he suggested we go back inside, and we ran towards the warmth of his house. He found the plushiest of robes and he put it on me while he just patted himself dry with a towel that he then wrapped around his hips. He looked at me with a flirty grin when he pushed his glasses back onto his nose with one finger.

Damn you, you sinful creature!

"All right, let's sit for that one," he said, suddenly serious.

He invited me to take a seat on the couch. As I did that, he took a piece of paper and a pen from his console. He slid the paper face down in front of me and placed the pen on top of it. He sat next to me.

"Remember that you've already agreed to say yes to that," he reminded me. The seriousness of his tone made me nervous.

"If it's paperwork for a marriage license, though, I reserve the right to refuse."

He chuckled. "I'm still not proposing, don't worry."

"I'm not adopting a child either."

"Noted. Anything else you'd like to veto?"

"Let's see . . . I won't buy a car, I won't work for you, I won't sign up for rowing, I won't join our bank accounts, I won't move in with you."

"Ouch. But don't you worry, it's not what this is about."

"What is it, then?"

He turned it over and I immediately recognized the orange logo. The title confirmed my worst fears: 'Application form.' The logo was one I had seen daily for almost four years. The Caltech logo.

"The paper and pen are symbolic, the real form is online," Arthur said.

The buzz I had immediately vanished, I sobered up in one second. I looked at Arthur, at a loss for words.

"I got in touch with the Admissions Office. They were sympathetic to your situation, and some of the employees even remembered your accident. They cannot give you the scholarship you used to have, but they will let you enroll so you can take your final term, starting in March."

"I—I don't know what to say."

"Well, you've already said yes, haven't you?"

"Cari . . ."

"Listen, I know it's not the kind of decision to make because of a game. Just, please, think about it."

"Caltech is so expensive, even for just one term. I don't have the money, and I'll have to quit my job to study, meaning I'll have even less money."

He shot me a condescending side glance. "That's not really what you're concerned about, is it? You know I will pay for it, I wouldn't suggest it otherwise."

"Besides the fact that it's too much money to be taking from you, I'll still have to pay for rent, and for food, and for my ridiculously high-maintenance hair."

"An easy fix to that would be for you to move in with me, but you already said no. I can lend you the money. The tuition fees are my gift to you, but I can set up a loan-like arrangement between us for the rest and you can repay me once you have a job."

"I have a job already. Several, actually, if you count my temp assignments."

"When's the last time you accepted an assignment, though?"

I blushed. "I stopped accepting them a while ago so I could have more free time to see you."

The way his face lit up in pure happiness. "Look at you! Making time for me and all, you must really like me."

"Shut up."

"What I meant to say is thank you, I appreciate your making space for me in your schedule."

He kissed my forehead and took my hands in his.

"Regarding Caltech, I have as many counterarguments as you have arguments. We can make it work, and we will. The only unknown is whether you want to do it."

"I—I can't. Even if we leave all the logistics issues aside, I don't think I'm smart enough to do it anymore. Caltech was so intense!"

"You have a lot of time to study and catch up before the spring term. And if you still struggle after you start, we'll just pay a grad student to tutor you."

"What if I still don't get a job after the degree? How will I repay you? How will I live?"

"Come on, it's Caltech and you're majoring in Aerospace Engineering. People will be lining up to hire you. And if they don't, I'll personally see that you don't end up homeless and starving."

"What if we break up? Who's going to take care of me then once I've quit my job and have failed to get a new one?"

"If I can have a dignified divorce with Eleanor and let her keep a store that I paid for, I can commit to making sure you're cared for even after a hypothetical breakup. I can even draft a contract if you want, you know I love a contract." That comment made me chuckle. "But I'm not going anywhere, and you said earlier you weren't either. So this point is moot."

"Okay but what if—"

"Abril! What did I tell you? I do have a counterargument for everything. I've thought this all through carefully. All you have to do is decide whether you want to do it."

"I have one argument you can't counter."

He sighed and rolled his eyes but told me to go on.

"Caltech was something I did with Josh. I'm not sure I have the strength to do it without him. It feels so wrong."

Caring hands moved to my waist and pulled me until I was sitting on his lap.

"I understand, and I can't pretend to know what he would think. But if it were me, I would want you to do it. I would hate to be the reason you let go of your dream school. Besides, Josh or no Josh, you would have gone there anyway, right?"

"Yes, but memories of Caltech are tainted with Josh and memories of Josh are tainted with Caltech. Walking those halls without him will not be easy."

"I know. I still think you should do it, and I know you can. But it's your choice."

"I'll think about it."

He pursed his lips, skeptical.

"Promise you'll actually think about it and you're not just saying that?"

"Yes. Will you promise me something in return?"

"I can certainly try."

"Promise you'll actually think about signing up for rowing."

He burst out laughing. "You're really putting Caltech and rowing on the same level?"

"Yes. I want you to be happy and fulfilled just as much as you want me to be happy and fulfilled."

"Great," he said with a massive grin. "If that's all it takes, I'm signing up tomorrow."

"Okay, then."

"Okay you'll think about it?"

"Okay I'm taking my final term of college."

The way his lips found mine was a mixture of joy, passion, and unadulterated happiness.

We made slow, tender love on the couch. Right after we finished, our chests still heaving from earth-shattering orgasms and his body still inside mine, I said what I wanted to say. What I needed to say.

"Cari?"

"Yes, darling?"

"I love you."

His biggest, most genuine smile, tugged at his mouth. Both dimples were present. He kissed my nose.

"I know."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A/N: As much as I love drama, I'm not sure I would have been able to write something that didn't have a happy ending. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this book, there's only the epilogue left.

Epilogue will be posted on Wednesday, please vote and comment.

Love,
Charlie.