Page 69 of Unapologetic Love Story

‘I can’t, it’s too fucked up.’

‘Pep, I’m going to be honest,’ Raina said, before giving a strained and hollow laugh. ‘I really wanted to sleep with Tom Branimir tonight. Like, so bad. I was so ready. We had a moment in the kitchen, and I wanted to let him have me right there. But I needed to take care of you. Ergo, I let him go. So, please. Don’t waste my fucking sacrifice, okay? Hit me with it. I want to help.’

Pepper gaped at Raina in astonishment and a shocked silence hung between them before they both broke into loud, raucous laughter.

‘Rai, I can’t with you,’ Pepper finally gasped. ‘You’re such a dainty one until you’re not.’

Raina’s smile softened. ‘What happened?’

Pepper felt things in such powerful blasts. She sometimes reminded Raina of her mother. While Meggie Lewis could be icy and passive-aggressive, she displayed her anger in loud, volcanic bursts that swept everyone around her away in emotional lava. However, as soon as the eruption was over, she settled into a serene calmness; almost as if none of it had happened.

Pepper was the same way, Raina thought. Like her name, she got up people’s noses and made them sneeze out whatever was inside. Her emotional detonations could devastate, but more often than not, any victims fell under collateral damage. Raina was reminded of superhero films, where the hero would knock down skyscrapers full of people in order to defeat the villain.

If people got hurt during one of Pepper’s episodes, she never seemed to think it worth crying over.

‘I’m someone’s Matt Fletcher.’

The words were uttered so brokenly and so quietly, Raina almost missed them completely. ‘What?’

‘I’m somebody’s Matt—’

‘What does that mean?’

Pepper exhaled. ‘Dex Sinclair.’

The man she would send an invitation to every year. ‘Dex Sinclair?’

‘The one that got away. Well. The one who was absolutely forced away, with no reason to stay.’

‘Tell me.’

‘We knew each other. Late teens, early twenties. He worked for the caterer my parents liked to use for their soirées.’

Raina rolled her eyes. ‘So relatable, Pep.’

‘I know,’ Pepper said, her voice tinged with a loathing that alarmed Raina, who’d made the remark in humour. ‘We were . . . friends.’

‘Uh huh.’

‘Well, you know how it goes. He was the hardworking, ambitious one with lots of raw talent and drive.’

‘And you were?’

‘The spoiled brat. Treated him like crap. Didn’t deserve him. Drove him away.’

‘Okay,’ Raina said, speaking gently. ‘What’s this got to do with my ex-boyfriend?’

Pepper met Raina’s eyes, and they were shimmering with remorseful, unshed tears. ‘He didn’t deserve you, Rai. You’re the best person in the whole world.’

‘That is . . .’ Raina was uncomfortable. ‘So untrue.’

‘No. It’s not. He had the best girlfriend. You loved him unconditionally. I saw it, Raina. I saw you giving everything.’

‘Yeah, well.’ Raina’s eyes darted about the room. They found patches on the ceiling. Cobwebs in the high corners of the room. They wanted to settle anywhere except on the face of her friend who was, for once, being vulnerable in a way that scared them both. ‘That’s what it is, isn’t it? Relationships. You just . . . show up. No matter what.’

She pinched Pepper lightly on the leg. ‘Even when they embarrass themselves.’

Pepper shuddered and shrunk back a little. ‘I really did, didn’t I?’