Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 108636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
How many Banks hearts do I have to break before I turn tail and run?
My pulse feels threaded, a racing flutter in my throat that refuses to quit. June’s blue eyes turn down at the corners, worry and embarrassment and uncertainty warring within them.
How can June be the one I’ve been messaging with all this time? How?
I swallow hard, thinking of all the things she’s said to me. The things I’ve said to her. They’re sexy things, personal things—the kinds of things you don’t come back from.
I’m just finding this all out, but her? She’s known it’s me the whole time.
Avery chatters on, unfazed by the sudden stop of Earth’s rotation, but the two of us? We’re in the middle of a metal-crunching, tires-shrieking wreck.
“I was going to invite Nathan Turlington to come with me to the annual Banks Halloween bash on Friday, but he refuses to wear a Zorro costume. And if he won’t do that, I’m not sure what the point of taking someone who looks like Antonio Banderas even is, you know? Like, know your niche. If he looked like Glen Powell, we’d go with a white T-shirt and jeans and a cowboy hat like he wears in Twisters, but he doesn’t. Plus, he wants to go as the Hulk. The Hulk. He has to be kidding me with that shit.”
“At least Hulk is shirtless,” June offers, her eyes still on me. She doesn’t look confused like me—she wouldn’t be, of course, being that she left the note for the Midnight meetup in the first place—but her ears are red-hot, and her bottom lip shakes just slightly less than her hands. She’s nervous. Maybe a little embarrassed. But she’s here. Her intention to meet me, to come clean about her identity, to put it all out on the table, is undeniable.
My brain is sludge and my heart out of rhythm. It feels impossible to make sense of and a little like I’m doing something wrong. Growing up so closely together, I had assumptions about how I’d see Juniper Perry for the rest of my life.
But the girl I grew up treating as a sister suddenly isn’t seeming so sisterly at all.
“Oh. Yeah. I guess that’s true,” Avery comments with a clueless smile and a wink directed at June. It’s clear she hasn’t sussed out the elephant-sized tension in this room, but that’s probably because my sister has never been good at sensing other people’s emotions. “See, June, that’s why you’re my best friend. You can see through my bullshit and call me on it. I guess I’ll tell him Hulk is okay, even if he is green.”
“I’m not sure how, but I think that might be racist,” I manage to remark, trying out my normally brotherly role on my tongue. It feels foreign, especially knowing that I expected this meetup to go an entirely different direction, but evidently, it’s passable.
Avery shoves me in the shoulder like always, and I lift the corner of my mouth in a smile as I stumble back playfully. June grabs her by the elbow and pulls her toward the exit.
I plead for answers silently, hoping she’ll find a way to ditch Avery back in their condo and come find me. Hoping she’ll meet me on Midnight to put this all to rest. I need an explanation. I need answers, and truthfully, I’m not even sure I know all the questions.
The June I’ve known for most of my life and the June of our chats are two entirely different people, and now that the secret is out, I don’t know which one she’ll be going forward. How in the hell are we supposed to move forward?
“Shut up, weirdo.” For the first time tonight, Avery notices my attire and the bottle of water in my hand. “Who even works out at midnight? Don’t you have work in the morning?”
“I think, out of the two of us, you’re the one we should be asking that question. Where exactly are you on your way back from this late, and why are you in the gym? I thought you did your workouts during work hours as an exercise in multitasking,” I mock.
“Late?” Avery’s laughter rings out in peals. “Oh my God, you’ve really gotten old, haven’t you? It’s just after midnight, for Pete’s sake. I was the first one to leave the club. If I didn’t feel like all the sushi I ate a Hosu House fucked up my stomach, I’d still be out. As soon as you said you felt sick, I started feeling sick too,” she says, turning to June. “And I left my AirPods down here earlier today and wanted them to help put me to sleep. Unlike my old-man brother, my body is liable to revolt at the early hour.”
I roll my eyes. “Whatever. Just go get some sleep so you can actually be a productive member of the company tomorrow.”