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The afternoon sun streamed in through the windows and lit her up from behind, haloing her in light.

“I’m okay,” she said, picking at a hole in the hem of her shirt. She seemed to vibrate with energy even when she was standing still.

“Sophie. Sit down. I’m not going to yell at you.”

She raised one eyebrow, skeptical. That movement made me laugh.

“I know I shut the door in your face the last time. I…I guess I’m sorry about that.” I hopped up and sat on the kitchen counter, my back against the cabinets.

“You are sorry, or you guess you are?” she asked. There was the jut of that stubborn chin. She might be nervous, but there was a strong spine underneath.

“I mean, my methods probably weren’t the best, but I wanted to send a message. I should have just said no thank you. The door slamming was excessive.”

She crossed her arms and looked away from me and toward my bookshelf.

“I was trying to be nice,” she said in a quiet voice.

“I know. But I didn’t want it. I still don’t want it. It’s really fucking hard to look at you.” My voice cracked and I had to swallow past the knot of pain that had worked its way up my throat. Fuck. I couldn’t let her see me fall apart.

Her eyes went wide. “Oh. I didn’t think about that.”

I clenched my teeth together to stop a bunch of really terrible words from coming out of my mouth. It wasn’t Sophie’s fault that she looked like her sister. It wasn’t her fault that her sister was a lying, cheating piece of shit.

You couldn’t help who your family was, and I knew that better than anyone.

“I can go wait in the hallway.” She reached to pick up her laundry and I shook my head.

“You don’t have to. But I think I’m going to just stay in my bedroom until you leave. If that’s okay.” That was the best I could do. Staying in the living room and looking at each other was going to cause me to say things that weren’t kind or nice and I’d done enough of that already.

“Of course. That’s fine. Do whatever you need to do. Thank you for letting me hang out here. I appreciate it.”

Pushing myself off the counter, I kept as much space between us as I could.

“I’m not a total bitch,” I said before I opened my door and walked into my bedroom. She was silent as I shut the door between us and breathed a sigh of relief.

The next fifteen minutes passed by like hours. I did everything I could to ignore the fact that Sophie was on the other side of my bedroom door. Probably sitting on my couch. Definitely looking at my apartment and judging it. Not that I cared. It didn’t matter if she hated my decor or decided I was messy or had bad taste in furniture or books.

It didn’t fucking matter.

I’d forgotten to grab my laptop, and there was no way I could go out and get it now, so I did my best to just try and read, but I kept stopping and listening.

When a message notification went off in the other room and I heard her walking out the door, I exhaled and flopped onto my bed. I’d been alternating between sitting down and hovering by the door nearly the whole time.

I waited at least five minutes before venturing out, still tentative as if she was going to pop back up and try to scare me.

She didn’t, but her presence was still here in the air. A slightly sweet fruity fragrance like grapefruit mixed with soft florals. It was pleasant.

A little paranoid, I walked around to make sure she hadn’t messed with anything. Had to be sure.

After a quick check of my apartment, I assured myself that everything was where I’d left it and there was no evidence that Sophie had been here, other than the dissipating scent in the air.

Relief.

Now I could definitely go back to ignoring her.

Chapter Six

Sophie