• • •

Laken didn't cry until they were three lights away.

Not in the apartment. Not in the elevator. Not when Darren took the box from her hands without asking what happened.

Three lights away, staring out the passenger window, her face crumpled.

Darren glanced over once, "You wanna talk about it?"

"No."

"Okay."

That somehow made her cry harder.

She didn't want sympathy. Not for the sex, the lying, any of it. That part was what it was.

What hurt was knowing Wes had been right.

The second Noah told her he was moving back, she knew. Maybe not every detail, maybe not exactly how ugly it would get, but she knew.

And she'd spent months pretending she didn't.

Noah hadn't even made it difficult. He hadn't chased her, hadn't asked her to leave Wes. He was just there.

She texted first. She flirted first. She found reasons to see him. All while dragging Wes along and convincing herself there was still something to save.

There wasn't. There probably hadn't been since Noah came home.

So why? Why not just leave?

"I'm such a shitty fucking person." Laken cried into her hands, "Oh my God."

Darren sighed, "We're all shit people at one point or the other, Lake."

"I slept with Noah. Literally got in my car, drove over there, left my ring in the car, and rang his doorbell."

"I don't... Need the details."

"But they matter. It all matters—Why would I do that?"

Darren turned the radio down, "Because you wanted to. Now, live with it. Cry today, and be done with it tomorrow. You're acting like it happened to you, when you chose it."

His words were blunt, and Laken tried to decide if this was tough love or just... tough.

"I should've never told you."

"Not if you didn't want the truth," he agreed, "Go talk to your mama and let her coddle you. I refuse." Darren drove through the gate to their neighborhood, "I refuse. Get your shit together, pick whoever—I don't give a damn, but I'm not sitting here while you act like you had no control over any of this."

Laken didn't respond to him. The moment the car stopped, she flung the door open and went inside, searching for her mom.

Instead she found Jared, standing in the living room, "Are you good?"

"Where's mama?"

"In the kitchen... Dad already called and told us you broke up with Wes."

Laken spun around to look at Darren, who didn't even care to deny it, "I told your mama. Be mad she told Jared."

"I didn't know y'all be doing it like this out here. I wanna move home."

"Your sister already moving back in—Ain't no room."

Jared looked at her, "You not moving in with Noah?"

"Are you dumb?" Laken was almost yelling, "Why would I?"

"Well, I thought—"

"Don't think shit! This isn't a joke!"

He held his hands up, "My bad, damn. I just assumed you wouldn't have spent the night if y'all weren't," he twirled a finger, "Together."

Carmen had heard the yelling and caught the end of the sentence, "Jared, leave her alone."

"Why are you even here? You're running the company into the fucking ground—that's what you should be worried about."

"Too bad I can't ask Wes for business advice. His fiancé just dumped him for a nigga she swear her soulmate."

It wasn't even the worst thing Jared had ever said to her, and yet he made her feel so stupid.

"I never said he was my soul mate." Laken was on the verge of tears again, "I'm not explaining it to you—fuck you."

Carmen sighed, "Lake, it's okay."

"No, y'all are acting like it's funny and I promise you, it's not."

Darren was still by the door, leaning on it now, "Would it help if you acted like you're mad at us? Does that give you something else to focus on?"

She wanted to tell her dad "fuck you" too. In fact, the words were on the tip of her tongue.

Laken swallowed the words. "I'm going to sleep."

• • •

Noah didn't get nervous often.

He prided himself on keeping a clear head and trusting that everything would work out how it was supposed to.

That sounded good until he was sitting there watching the phone ring.

Destiny.

In theory, there was no reason for him to avoid the call. He knew why she was calling, because he'd told her he would be back at his apartment today and she should come over.

That was before, though. Before he had sex with Laken, canceled his flight, and started falling back into old habits.

Saying it out loud would make it real. Having the conversation would make it tangible.

He snorted at the fact that Laken had just ended an engagement, and he was hesitant to talk to a situationship.

The phone stopped ringing, and he didn't give it a chance to ring again. Noah hit her name and waited.

One ring. "I'm not playing phone tag with you."

"My bad."

"Whatever. What time do you land? I'm trying to time my flight close to yours."

Noah blew out a breath, "I canceled my shit."

"Oh. Why?"

"Laken."

Destiny didn't say anything at first. Then, "I'm happy for you."

"You don't even know what you happy about." He laughed.

"I can't name a time you canceled a flight." She joined his laughter. "So, I'm assuming that worked out for you."

"Not all the way."

"But enough," Destiny concluded, "I just lost my best eater."

Noah stared at the phone before he started laughing. "Ain't no way you said that."

"What? I'm being supportive."

"That's support?"

"Absolutely. I could've made this weird."

He shook his head, smiling now. "I thought you was."

"No, 'cause I like you. Ask Laken can we still be friends."

"That's some messy ass shit to say."

Destiny was enjoying this way too much, "Is that a no?"

"Hell yeah. I just got back in the door you think I'm starting off like that?"

"Give it a few months, then she won't care."

Destiny didn't even know Laken. She absolutely would care.

That was a problem for future Noah.

He ended the call shortly after, tossing his phone beside him. One conversation down—two, technically. He'd talked to Laken and Destiny. There wasn't anybody else he felt like he owed a conversation to.

Naturally, his mind drifted to football. They'd told him not to come back until closer to the start of the season, but he'd assumed when they offered him an extension, they would want him to return to practice.

They didn't.

He hated sitting idle, and there were only so many workouts with his trainer he could do before he started to get bored. He'd surpassed the bored part—this was worse.

"I need a fucking hobby." Noah muttered to himself, throwing his sheets in the washer.

According to Laken, football was his hobby.

Noah had just pressed start when his doorbell rang. A second later, the door opened, "Noah?"

He'd have to take his key back, "Yeah, ma?"

Amber stepped inside like she'd been invited, shutting the door behind her before Noah even made it out of the laundry room.

"What were you doing?"

"Washing." That much should've been obvious. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to check on you."

Laken had told him she'd asked her dad to take her to the apartment she shared with Wes, and he knew Darren would've told Carmen, Carmen would've told his mom, Amber would've told his dad.

They could've given it a fucking day.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Really? Because I heard Lake isn't."

"Well," Noah stepped around her, "go talk to Lake."

It irritated him. Not that they cared about her—that was fine. But everybody kept acting like Laken was incapable of making a bad decision unless somebody talked her into it.
He knew better. He'd witnessed it. He'd been a part of it.

He shook his head, "Y'all too old to still be gossiping."

"It's not gossip," Amber argued, placing a hand on his arm when he tried to leave, "Carmen just wanted to know what I knew."

"She could've asked her daughter. The one that's in the house with her."

"Why are you getting so defensive?"

"'Cause my mama just walked in my house, asking me questions about something that ain't got nothing to do with her or her friend. Laken isn't a child, ma."

Amber dropped her hand from his arm. "Nobody said she was. I just told you I came to check on you."

"And then asked me about Lake. I love you, shit, I love Carmen." Noah sat on the couch, looking at her. "But I need everybody to mind their business."

"That's fine. Just make sure you leave us out of it."

"I never brought nobody into it."

Truthfully, he never told them anything. Laken used her parents and friends as a sounding board. He'd never cared because they were younger and fucking stupid.

They were older now. He wanted to think they weren't still that stupid.

"You know what's funny about all of this?" He looked up at her, "Y'all was all for it before, now it happened, and y'all surprised?"

"We didn't know it was going to happen like this."

He shrugged, "Can I have my key back?"

• • •

By one in the morning, Laken had ruled out twelve apartments.

One was too small, the other too far from work. Another was way too much for gray laminate and a pool she would never use.

The thirteenth made her stop.

Two bedrooms. High ceilings. A kitchen she actually liked. Close enough to school that she wouldn't hate herself every morning.

She clicked through the pictures twice before saving the listing.

Despite how mad Jared had made her with his comments, it made sense why he thought she would move in with Noah. Laken was sure everyone assumed she would, and honestly, she probably would spend most of her time at his house or vice versa.

But if this didn't work.

If whatever they had between the two of them ended badly.

Laken just wanted somewhere else to go.

She loved her parents, but they had never been the type to let things go unquestioned. They wanted answers, explanations—sometimes she didn't want to talk about it.

Buying a house had crossed her mind, but that was too permanent. And for every worst-case scenario she considered, there was still the best one.

In which this worked how she wanted it to, and they lived happily ever after.

Trey told her she lived in a fairy tale, maybe he was right. Maybe Jared was too.

Laken never considered Noah her "soul mate." That was some shit Disney made up to sell books and movies.

But she knew that nobody else made her feel like him.

And with all that power to make her feel alive, he also had the power to make her feel how she felt before Wes.

Laken went back to the thirteenth listing and clicked Schedule a Tour.

• • •

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