9. Margot

"Not that Idon't love this visit, but what are you doing on my couch in the middle of the day, watching reality TV?" Perry asks, hands on hips and not looking anywhere near as intimidating as he's aiming for. "You're disrupting my Judge Judy hour."

"The fact you have a Judge Judy hour just proves you need to be disrupted."

The vague happiness in his expression cracks. "What's going on? You're grumpy."

"I'm always grumpy."

"No, you're always … well, okay, grumpy, but normally, there's some spark behind it. You sound like a vacant hallway."

I cast a concerned look his way. "A hallway?"

"I said what I said." He prods me with his foot. "Are you dying?"

I scowl and shove his gross appendage away. "I worry about you. Not the other way around."

"Yeah, but usually, I don't have a reason to worry about you."

"And you don't have a reason now. I liked a girl, I fucked it up, now I'm nursing mild heartburn."

"Heartburn? Why didn't you say? I have some antacids … they're probably in date."

He hurts my head. At least trying to be patient with him is distracting. "Not that kind of heartburn."

"Is there another kind?"

"My heart feels sunburned. Hence, heartburn."

"Hmm …" He tilts his head, watching me. "Yeah, it doesn't work. You might need to come up with another word for it. Sunbreak? Heartouch?" He taps his chin. "Third-degree bummed?"

"Stop talking. You're giving me headouch."

"And where did we land on you dying?" He presses his hand to my forehead, and I bat it away also. "Because if you leave me too, I really do think I'll hold it against you for the rest of my life."

"I'm sure my corpse will care."

"Margy …"

I grunt and sit up, and my silly brother immediately takes the spot next to me. "I'm fine."

"You know you can tell me anything, don't you?"

Anything … except this one thing. Elle probably hates me by now; what's the point in having my brother hate me too? My biggest regret is taking that job … maybe if I hadn't, Perry and Elle would have fallen for each other and had their fairy-tale romance.

Then again, I still don't think Elle's capable of falling for any man. It's not up to me to tell her that though. I kissed her two days ago, she hasn't reached out again, and that's my answer. Whether she's into women or not, she clearly isn't into me, and it might fucking suck, but she can go paint her apartment with some other person.

Money or no money, I'm not hanging around any longer.

"Margot."

I start at Perry using my full name.

"You don't have to close off all the time. I'm a big boy. Whatever this is, I can handle it."

I glance over at him. The same big, sweet eyes. The chaotic dark hair. His hopeful expression. My brother is way too sweet and innocent to handle anything, but … well, it's not like I can keep it from him forever.

"Have you heard from the Elite people?"

He blinks at me, clearly surprised by the topic. "Ah, no. I mean, I took what was supposed to be a quick job, and it ended with …" His laugh is slightly manic. "Well, I decided it wasn't for me."

My big-sister sensors go into overdrive. "What the hell happened?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm fine. We're on Margy hour now."

Way to make my guilt kick in even harder. "You … maybe were assigned another job. That you didn't see."

"What do you mean?"

I sigh, already hating this whole conversation. "You were assigned a woman who was having a hard time of things and wanted some company."

"That's impossible."

"No, I'm just the asshole who was super skeptical about this thing, saw the job in your inbox the last time I was here, and … took it."

"You took it?"

"I'm so, so sorry. It was stupid, but I really did want to see what it was all about and make sure you weren't getting yourself into trouble. You … I love you, but you don't always think things through."

He frowns. "It's not that I don't try to. I'm doing the best I can over here."

"I know. But protecting you is my default."

"So it's my fault you took this job?"

"No. That's not …" I draw in a long breath, then let it all out in a rush. "I'm just explaining my thought process. I shouldn't have done it—that's completely on me. But … if something happened to you, maybe I'd hold it against you too."

I hate the way my vision goes blurry, and before I know it, Perry is tackling me in a hug. "You're the best sister, and you did a shitty thing, but at least now I know where all the money that hit my bank account came from."

I pull back. "Money?"

"Oh yeah. Like … a lot. Two different amounts. And at first, I was like, is someone paying me off for some reason? Is this hush money?" Of course he'd assume that and not that it was a mistake like most people would. "Then I just decided not to touch it in case someone asked for it back."

I narrow my gaze at him. "How much of it did you actually spend?"

His smile is guilty. "I really needed a new car. But it was secondhand! Practically a steal on account of the bloodstains on the back seat."

My eyes bug from my head. "Bloodstains?"

"It's okay, the body was gone, and I booked it in for a detail next week, so hopefully they can get most of it out."

I bury my head in my hands. "Holy shit, you're going to get arrested."

"I'm not an idiot, Margy. I made sure the sale date on the papers was the day after the, uh, issues."

Surprisingly, none of that makes me feel better. "We're coming back to that," I tell him, trying to think if I know of anyone who can burn out a car.

"Oh yes, your heartburn. I'm guessing it was the woman from the job?"

I hesitate, then nod. "I stupidly kissed her. And if she's already paid everything she owed, that means the job is over and gives me the very, very clear message that she's done with me."

"When did that happen?"

"Not last night but the night before?"

"And you're still moping? Wow. You're really heartsick."

I almost roll my eyes.

"But also, the second amount was paid before that."

"What do you mean?"

He pulls out his phone and logs in to the banking app. And yep, he's definitely been paid. Well. "Look." He points to a five-figure amount. "That was … four days ago. Technically, the job should have ended then."

"Four days …" Elite is very clear that payment in full needs to be made when the job is complete, so that can only mean … Elle really meant it. She really wanted us to be friends. Actual friends. Somehow, that makes me feel worse, but not for myself. I hurt for her. I hate how lost she is, and I hate that I can't be there to help her anymore.

All she has to do is reach out. A text or a call or her showing up on my fucking doorstep. Hell, I'll even take a social media like. Anything to let me know that she's not completely icing me out. If she gives me that, I'd be there for her in a second.

But there's been nothing.

So therefore, it's not my job to be there for her.

Urg. Why does this have to hurt so much?

The stupid thing is that we didn't even know each other for that long. A few weeks was enough for me to know there's more about Elle than she lets on. For me to peek behind the hot-mess curtain and see someone who's desperately trying not to struggle. Sure, she says a lot of dumb shit sometimes, but so do I, and she's never once tried to defend the narrow-mindedness. She genuinely wants to be a good person.

"You should talk to her," Perry says.

"No point. She knows where I stand."

"Well, any lezzy who doesn't want my Margy is an idiot."

I bark a laugh. "We're not doing lezzy. Also, I have no idea how Elle identifies."

"Huh. So she might be straight."

"Might be." Even though I doubt it.

"Then maybe she's worried about hurting your feelings. It's not her fault if she doesn't feel the same."

I sigh because he's right. "Even if she was a, uh, lezzy, it wouldn't be her fault anyway. Fuck. I think I'm the asshole in this situation."

"You're never an asshole."

"I kissed her with no clue if she wanted it. Definitely an asshole move."

Perry nods. "You have never been good with communication."

"Sure I am." I tap my temple. "But it happens up here." Then my mouth. "And struggles to make it out of here."

He laughs. "Talk to her. Please?"

That is one hundred percent the absolute last thing I want to do.

"Fine. But only because I owe her an apology. Which I'll probably do with … flowers or some shit."

"Does she like flowers?"

"Fuck, I don't know. Why are you making this hard?"

He smiles suddenly and lets out a whine. "There's my Margy. You've got your grumpy spark back."

I flip him off and head down the hall to change.

I already hate today.