“Five years isn’t a long time.”
“It is to some people.” Landon didn’t know what compelled him to argue with her. Maybe Jamie was kind of an asshole. “I’m just saying that time is relative.”
Rose ripped off a piece of the cranberry scone. “Besides, no one’s taken it even close to that long. I mean, they’re telling us this optimism, this hope, will last at least five years, but that’s just an educated guess, isn’t it?”
“I always assumed they’d tested it on animals.”
Rose laughed, beautifully. “That’s funny. There’s your optimism showing.We’rethe guinea pigs, Jamie.”
The thought was not comforting, nor was the fact that Rose didn’t seem the least bit bothered by it. Landon did not want to think about it another minute. “Well, my other wrote me what I would consider a medium-length letter,” he lied. He had already taken it this far. What was the harm in digging in?
Her eyes sparkled, and she tapped a hand down on the table. “You don’t have to share, of course, but I’m always curious to know what an other decides to include. Can’t get enough of it, really. The internet is filled with stories, but I swear I think I’m up to date on every post as of this morning.”
“It was a bad breakup,” Landon said. “Really bad. Soulmates and all that. He didn’t think he would ever be happy again.” Like the very best lies, it was half true. “Well, that and rising ocean temperatures. It sounds like that last degree was the tipping point for other Jamie.”
“So interesting,” Rose said, swirling a corner of the scone in her espresso. “Did he tell you much about the breakup?”
“That she was perfect, and if they had to assign blame, it would fall squarely on him.” That might have been too much, even for Landon.
“My other barely said anything at all.” As he had in the life drawing class, Landon tried to school his features. He did not want to come across as anything other than mildly interested. “But she seemed very protective, other Rose. She said she didn’t want to be here anymore. I think she wanted to kill herself.”
Rose may as well have pulled the pin on a grenade under their table.
“That’s not politically correct, though, is it,” she said. “It’s ‘die by suicide.’” Swallowing was the only thing Landon seemed capable of, and that was only because it was more or less automatic.“Anyway, I couldn’t believe she didn’t say why. She told me she had a friend named Poppy who would help me start over, and that she didn’t care what I did next so long as I was happy. But I take it very seriously that other Rose wouldn’t give me any details beyond those basics.” Rose leaned in close. “That’s why I moved here.”
And that’s why you tossed my letter in the trash without opening it, Landon thought. Could he speak? He was going to have to try. “That’s really heavy,” he finally managed.
“I know. It’s just so weird to know that there was a version of me walking around that miserable when I’m so happy. It doesn’t seem possible.”
“She really didn’t give you any details?”
“Nope,” Rose said. “And I’m grateful. I want nothing to do with a life that made my other not want to be here.” Landon looked down at his mud-stained sneakers. He’d known that Rose had been in a bad way—they both had. If it weren’t for Poppy and Conor, neither of them would have eaten a thing. He’d assumed it was all part and parcel, par for the course when two people had been through what they had. He’d thought that they’d been in it together, even if they’d been going through it alone. “God, I could really just talk about this stuff forever, you know?”
“Forever,” Landon said. “I agree.”
Enormous arms snaked around Rose with such speed that Landon leaped to his feet, ready to defend her against a presumed attacker.
“Jesus, Graham!” Rose waited long enough before swirling in the man’s arms for Landon to see her beatific smile, as though he were the sun and she a planet caught in his orbit. “I thought we were meeting at five!”
Landon clenched his jaw. Graham may as well have been thesun. Graham looked like he’d just wandered off a movie set where he got paid the big bucks to play the role of Guy Who Gets the Girl. His hair was dark brown with subtle streaks of red, his beard so thick and even it could have been painted on. Enormous legs complemented his enormous arms and were in perfect proportion to his enormous torso (which Landon was decently sure sported enormous raised abs like ski moguls).
“It’s five, love,” Graham said. “Wee bit past, even.” A Scot, too. Landon wondered whether new Rose had the same proclivity for a Scottish accent as his Rose. Seemed the answer was yes.
“Graham, this is Jamie,” she said, still clutching his arms tightly. Graham extracted one and held it out to Landon.
“Nice to meet ye,” he said. “She picked you up after class, then, did she?”
This was his penance, he supposed. Rose hadn’t pegged him as the creep who wanted to spend more time with the nude model, but her boyfriend had. “Oh, we were just—”
“Can’t tell you how many times this has happened. You’ll have taken the pill then, yeah?” Graham’s smile was so warm that Landon felt sure even he could fall for him, given the time.
“Yep,” Landon said.Dig, dig, dig.“Not long ago. I must have just been an obvious mark.”
Rose swiveled in Graham’s arms. “We should invite him, right?” Landon didn’t need to know where to know that if Rose would be there with Graham, it was an invitation he wanted to decline.
Graham’s tone was that of a father placating an overly exuberant child. That alone should have made it off-putting, but somehow it worked for him. “Sure, love,” he said. “Whatever you want.”
Rose turned back to Landon and grabbed the last hunk ofblueberry muffin, top thick with sugar crystals. “We’ve got a group going, for pill takers. It’s mostly transplants and students and some locals like Graham. It can be hard when most people in your daily life don’t share the same outlook on the world that you do. And it’s just full of wonderful people. If I hadn’t been pulled in when I moved here, we never would have met.”
