Page 146 of The Night We Met

“Mike, did you eat the macarons?” I asked.

He looked at me with bloodshot eyes. “What?”

“Did you eat the fucking macarons in your room?!”

He just stood there, gasping.

“I’ll go check,” Jesse said, bolting down the hall. He came back a moment later holding the clear packaging. Half the cookies were gone.

No… He’d eaten the damn cookies that he was careless enough to buy her and then he’d fucking kissed her.

The look Larissa gave me was pure terror.

“Where’s your Benadryl and your EpiPen?” I asked, trying to stay calm.

Samantha flew into action. “I’ll find her purse.” She darted down the hall.

Heather ran to her side. “Let’s wash your mouth out. Stay calm,” she said.

She and Becca bent her over the sink and turned on the faucet. I didn’t wait for Samantha. I ran for my luggage. I got my EpiPen and was back in the kitchen in less than ten seconds.

Mike was pacing now, his hands on his head having realized at least to some extent what he’d just done. “Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!!!”

I pulled a chair up next to the sink and when Heather was done rinsing Larissa’s mouth, she sat her down. Samantha had come back with Benadryl. “I couldn’t find her purse, but this was in the medicine cabinet.”

I poured the pink liquid into the cap, my hands shaking. Larissa took it and swallowed the dose. She looked pale.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

She shook her head.

Splotches.

Hives, popping up on her bare chest and neck. Her lips looked swollen.

Then she started to wheeze. I could hear it even over the noise Mike was making.

She was going into anaphylaxis.

“We’re going to have to give you your EpiPen, okay?” I said.

She nodded, fear in her eyes.

I pulled the cap off the pen. “This is going to be quick,” I said gently.

I put a palm on her bare thigh. Set the nose of the EpiPen against her skin between my thumb and pointer finger. Pressed. Clicked. Held for ten seconds.

Larissa was crying.

I always told myself that I could never touch her. That it would do something to me that I couldn’t undo.

It did.

I set the empty EpiPen on the kitchen counter. I turned slowly to Mike. Then I stalked across the room, pulled my arm back, and punched him in the face.

LARISSA