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“Hey Lex,” I said, gritting my teeth. “This is my mom and brother. They’re not gonna be long. I’ll come get you when we’re done.”
Her eyes flicked from Jourdan to my mom. She knew that I wasn’t close with my family and understood the entire backstory as to why, and I could see the questions forming in her mind as she turned her gaze back to me and gave me a quick nod.
“Nice to meet you,” she whispered to the newcomers before disappearing back behind her door.
“She seems nice,” my mother whispered as I swung the door to my apartment open and stepped inside.
I didn’t say anything to them, just allowed them to follow in after me. I kicked off my shoes at the door, but I knew they wouldn’t do the same.
The good thing about having a studio apartment was there wasn’t much needed when giving someone a ‘tour’. So, I just stepped into my small space, held my arms in the air, and gestured wildly.
“Well, here it is.”
My brother looked around, taking in the decorations and the books.
“It’s cute,” he said, and I was surprised that he sounded like he meant it. “Cozy.”
I tried to hide my shock as my eyes flicked from him to my mom. Justine’s reaction to my apartment was an entirely different story. Her lips were pursed, and she had barely moved more than an inch inside the threshold, clearly wanting to keep as close to the door as possible, as if she was expecting to need to make a quick exit. She hadn’t stopped clutching her bag, and the displeasure in her gaze that had been present on the stairs had amplified.
I couldn’t hide it anymore. I rolled my eyes at her as I walked over to my sofa and sat down. I pulled one of the throw pillows onto my lap and immediately began fidgeting with the tassels that lined it, needing to do something, anything, to keep myself from being entirely still.
“Feel free to sit wherever,” I told them, looking pointedly at the sofa, the small reading chair in the corner, and also the kitchen table.
Jourdan, seemingly much more comfortable in my small, very non-luxurious space than I ever would have guessed, walked over and sat next to me on the couch. I watched as his eyes roved over the books on the bookshelf that rested against the wall.
“Glad you still like to read,” he said with a nod of his head. “I’ve read a couple of those. I liked them. We should talk about them sometime.”
The waspishness he had greeted me with out on the sidewalk seemed to have dissipated, and I could see the olive branch he was trying to extend.
I just wasn’t sure if I was ready to take it. My head was still swimming with the simple fact that they were even there, let alone being able to process him being nice to me? It was all a lot to handle in the span of five minutes.
I glanced back toward the door and found my mom still standing in the exact same spot, a worried look on her face.
“So, Blake told you all where to find me?” I asked.
I hadn’t meant them to, but the words had come out of me like an accusation.
Jourdan narrowed his eyes at my tone, and I saw his jaw tick as he fought the urge to fire back.
“Not exactly,” he said, blowing out a breath.
“You don’t have to cover for him. He’s the only one that could have told you that I’m here.”
“I mean yeah, he told me he ran into you here. But he tried to tell us not to come and see you.”
“Sure,” I nodded, not believing him in the slightest.
“Juniper,” my mother finally stepped out from the protection of the doorway and shut the door behind her. She didn’t stop clutching her bag though. “Is this really where you live? Where you’ve lived this entire time?”
I sighed. “Yes, Mom. It is. Well, not the entire time. I’ve been here for about five years. The first year after I left home, I was in a hole-in-the-wall loft with cockroaches. Consider yourself lucky you didn’t stick your nose into my business and find me then because you really would have hated it.”
Her lips pursed into an even finer line.
“Nell,” my brother warned, and I turned my glare to him.
“What?” I demanded. “This place is good enough for your best friend to buy but not good enough for me to live in?”
“We just wanted so much more for you,” my mom’s voice was high and pleading. When I turned my attention back to her, her cheeks were flushed with whatever emotion she was battling, and I tried to calm myself down. But what she said next made that all but impossible. “You had so much potential. You have always been so beautiful and so smart. You should have married by now. Should have had babies and created a life with someone who could have provided for you….”
