Page 37 of Only and Forever
“See you tomorrow,” I tell him. I step back onto the Vespa and slip on my helmet.
Viggo stands in the doorway, watching me. “Good night, Lulaloo.”
I turn over the engine and roll forward, knocking up the kickstand, before I pull onto the road. For the first time in a very long time, it really does feel like a good night after all.
TEN
Tallulah
Playlist: “Anti-hero—Acoustic Version,” Taylor Swift
“You’re doingwhat?” Charlie blinks at me owlishly. Like mine, her dark hair is a bird’s nest. She grips her coffee cup so hard, her knuckles are white.
I sip my coffee from the other end of her sofa, my makeshift bed the past week, and raise my eyebrows. “Don’t tell me you’re displeased by this turn of events.”
Charlie blushes and buries her face in her mug, taking a long gulp of coffee.
“I know exactly what you were doing last night,” I tell her, “tricking me into going to the Bergman family gathering at his store, running out of there afterward with your tail between your legs. You’re trying to set us up.”
My sister lowers her mug, revealing that familiar guilty look, those big pleading puppy eyes. “Not exactly set you up, but... you know, nudge you toward him?”
I huff a laugh. “Semantics. You’re gunning for us to get together. And it’s not going to happen.”
Charlie’s expression dips to a pout. “So you’re moving in with him... why?”
“For practical reasons. I need my own place.”
“Tallulah, we love having you here—”
I hold up a hand. “Charlie, you are the sweetest person in theworld. You’re going to tell me I don’t need to get out of your and Gigi’s hair, and you’ll mean well, but that doesn’t mean you’re making sense. You two need your space. You’re getting married in two months, and there are a lot of moving parts, lots of stressors coming at you—you need to come home in the evening and snuggle on the couch with your fiancée as long as you want, not worry about leaving it so I can go to bed. You need to be able to screw each other six ways to Sunday on whatever surface you want and not have to be mindful that I could walk in the door any minute. You need...” A lump catches in my throat because, saying this, I’m realizing, it’s finally hitting me—my baby sister is gettingmarried; she’s got her own family now; she made it through the emotional shitstorm of our upbringing and found happiness.
I swallow, then meet my sister’s eyes. “You need space to live your life.”
Charlie bites her lip, eyes searching mine. “So you’re moving in with Viggo just for somewhere to stay? That’s it?”
“Well... no.”
My sister emits an irritating self-satisfied hum. “I didn’t think so. Otherwise, you’d just find another rental.”
“We’re doing a skills swap, of sorts. He’s going to help me iron out the kinks in my book—”
“ ‘Iron out the kinks,’ eh? Is he going to help ‘fill your plot holes,’ too?”
I thwack her with a pillow. “It’s not like that. Our arrangement is just business. He’ll help me with the book. I’ll help out around the store. It’s easiest to do that if we’re living behind the store, in the same space.”
Charlie grins and nudges my foot with hers. “Sounds like quite the arrangement.”
I shove her foot back. “Stop smiling like that.”
“I’m just saying, maybe you don’t think you’re relationshipmaterial for each other, but I still got something right, dragging you to his store yesterday. You came out of that with hope for your book that’s been giving you a hard time and a really good new living situation.”
My heart kicks against my chest as I confess my worry, wrapped in a question: “You think it’ll be good, us living together?”
Charlie’s smile deepens. “Of course it will be. Viggo is ablast. He’s like... the opposite of how we grew up—talkative, affectionate, playful. Every time I see him, I’m happier. He’s the human embodiment of serotonin.”
“You sure you don’t want to throwyourselfat him?”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m a happily engaged woman. I just like him. He’s my friend. And a good person, Tallulah. I know he’ll be a good roommate to you.”