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Can’t even escape in sleep.
I turn and lean back against my desk, crossing my legs at the ankle as my sister laughs.
“You need to learn to accept compliments.” She rolls her eyes as she walks over to the fish tank and sprinkles some food from a pot into it. She bends down to look at the small clown fish that swims up first to eat.
She’s got her long dark hair tied up today, and the top of her tattoo I did for her is visible above the neckline of her blouse.
J&A.
Pretty fucking cozy.
“What is it? I can sense your brotherly disapproval from here.” Jasmin straightens, placing the pot down and turns to face me.
“Your tattoo. Was it really for Mom and Dad?”
Her lips part as she stares at me. “Yes. Why would you even ask that?”
I shrug. “It’s just… J and A. Jasmin and Alistair also fits.”
My biceps tense as I fold my arms over my chest, the idea that my sister asked me to tattoo her lover’s initials on her neck, making out it was for our parents, has acid running through my veins.
“You’re a real prick sometimes, you know that?” She glares at me and then sighs, rubbing at her temples.
I purse my lips. “Sorry.”
She looks at me from under her brows. “You know I miss them as much as you, right?”
I sniff and lift my chin. I don’t want to get heavy right now. We both fucking miss them. I know that. Our life would be so different if they hadn’t died.
“I know you do.”
Jasmin sighs. “The coincidence with the initials did occur to me, yes. I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t. But I wanted a reminder of them. Just like you have one.” Her eyes go to the bird and flowers on my neck, and then to my chest, where the compass is concealed by my shirt. “I was going to ask you after… after that night at the business dinner. But life had other plans.”
“Didn’t it just?”
Jasmin meets my eyes, and her face softens. “The tattoo was for Mom and Dad. But then I met Al, and it felt…” She glances at the fish. “It felt right. Like it held a new double meaning. One for the past. One for the future.”
I nod in silence.
A double meaning. Just like the tattoo I did for Rose. Her past. And her future. She just needs to look and see. It’s all there waiting for her.
Jasmin’s gaze moves around the room as she breathes softly. “I know that’s not all that’s on your mind. So, what is it? What’s really wrong?”
“Nothing.” I fold my arms and roll my neck, the cracking only providing the merest relief to the tension that’s been clouding my head—and the rest of my body—for the past day.
Two days to go.
Forty-eight hours.
Then the past becomes the past.
Time moves on.
Except, call me a pessimist, but after all that’s happened to me, I’m not ready to start believing it yet.
“Have you and Rose had a fight?”
“What? No. Why? Did she seem upset about something?” I push off my desk.
