Page 16 of Rapunzel Is Losing It

“He wasmeantto leave then. He wasn’t meant to be permanent.”

Del’s phone buzzed in her pocket and she leaned back, quickly declined the call, then looked at me again. I’d still caught Beck’s caller ID on the screen. She was here instead of caring for her future step-daughter… step-niece… step-Brody. First I made sure to destroy my relationship with Victor, and now I was so self-centered, I’d be pushing Del away, too. “Look-” she said.

“You should go. I’m keeping you.”

“Cordelia, listen to me,” Del narrowed her eyes at the ceiling while rubbing her thumb over the back of her hand, clearly about to break some very uncomfortable truth to me, “as someone who has been subjected to unwanted physical advances by their boss, I think you need to talk. There’s a chance Victor truly didn’t want anything to happen. If that’s the case, you need to apologize. You can’t pretend the power imbalance away. You are literally the reason he has a roof over his head.” She sighed. “ Knowing your history, however, I think he meant exactly what he said. You were drunk. He might feel like he would have taken advantage of you if he had acted on the kiss.”

“Can’t I just send him an apology gift basket?”

She leveled me with a cold glare. “Are you serious?”

“Maybe.” Not really. I still sucked at presents. Del hadn’t even gotten to her pathetic macarons yet. And the flowers had probably wilted overnight.

“Do you need me to stay? I’m not sure whether this is the kind of situation where I should stay and comfort you - or tell you to just go talk to Victor.”

“It’s fine. You don’t have to stay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” I shuffled away from the doorway but stayed rooted to the floor, leaning against my desk instead. “One last question.”

“Yes?” Del tucked and pulled her too-large pants into place as she got off the floor.

“When you marry Beck, does that make you Brody’s step-mother?”

“Uuh.” Del blinked, not quite as used to my skipping thoughts as Victor was. “No, not really. Beck will never replace her dad. We’re just her guardians, I guess. The people responsible for her well-being.”

“Okay. Sorry for keeping you. Go.” I waved her off.

“I’m sorry that I can’t stay. I’ll call you later, okay?”

The second she was through the door, I pulled a strand of hair to my chest, wrapping it around my fingers. If Beck wasn’t taking his brother’s place, and Del wasn’t Brody’s step-mother, that meant my actions had turned the girl into an orphan.

I had been the one encouraging Del to connect with Beck when she’d been working as my body double. I had been the one who opened the door for his brother Julian. I had been the one too stupid to realize his intentions, too weak to fight back, too absorbed in myself to realize that Victor may have done his job by shooting Julian, but he’d also cost a teenage girl her family.

Like I hadn’t gone through the exact same thing.

I was ruining lives left, right and center.

CHAPTER SIX

The restof the weekend passed in a blur, and I thankfully barely saw Victor. I avoided the kitchen when I knew he was making food, and our entire conversation on Sunday consisted of two texts:

Victor • 08:42am

Basement

Translation:If I needed him, he was downstairs, either in the gym or the pool.

Cordelia • 08:45am

Winter Garden

Translation:I decided to put on one nature documentary after another to keep my thoughts far, far away from the fact that I kissed you. I’ll be repotting my plants for the rest of the weekend to keep my hands busy. Please don’t interrupt me. I would die of shame if you so much as looked at me.

I wasn’t quite sure he got the entire meaning behind my two words, but he didn’t seek me out either.

Then on Monday morning,I woke up to a text message that both relieved some of the pressure on my chest, while it simultaneously restored Friday’s sour dread in the pit of my stomach. Was that jealousy?