Villains by Necessity by Elisse Hay

Author:Elisse Hay
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781648983900
Publisher: City Owl Press

Twenty-Two

I cried myself to exhaustion. She tucked me in on the couch and set hot chocolate beside me with my phone. I couldn’t keep my swollen eyes open. “I’ll be back,” she promised. “If you’re okay for a few hours.”

What the fuck was I going to do? I just nodded, pathetic, and huddled lower in the blanket, listening to the silence of my apartment offset by the chaos in my head. There was nothing I could do except sleep.

When there was a knock on the door, I assumed it was Lilith. I mopped fresh snot off my face and tossed the tissue on the way to get it.

It wasn’t Lilith. Arthur, impeccable in his three piece and holding a couple of bags, looked at me with compassion. “Um. Brought you some supplies. I heard what happened.”

My mind went straight to Beo. “How?” I asked, the word rough.

“Reports go through me.” He offered me the bags. “The cure is almost worse than the disease with love potions.”

I looked at him, lost. “What?” I stepped back. Fuck it. Why not. Arsehole boss turned good. All it took was a bunch of hormones. Who knew? Who cared?

“The come-down from the love potion,” he said, following me in with just a quick, furtive glance around. “Lilith said…but I know how it feels. So.” He set the bags on my mostly clean bench, started unpacking them. “Feel free to crash. I’ll just put this stuff away.” He glanced around again. “Somewhere.”

Even knowing he’d probably be trying to file shit alphabetically in my mayhem-driven system didn’t amuse me. “I haven’t had any potions,” I told him, dully, watching as he put some fancy tissues in front of me. The sort for noses that had been sandpapered by frequent blowing. That was…weird of him.

He paused in the act of pulling out some fresh berries that would’ve cost a bomb this time of year. “Uh—okay.” He was studying me. “Then why are you all.” He waved a hand at his face.

I seriously considered punching him. A good gut punch. The mental image brought an inkling of satisfaction with it. “Because I just got my shit back from my boyfriend, you insensitive jerk.” But the words held no heat, just exhaustion. I took the strawberries from his hand, popped the lid, and plonked myself down on a stool. “Want one?”

He gave me serious side-eye. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Why would you?”

“We slept together, Rory,” he said, and there was a bit of steel in his tone that went straight to my spine, making me straighten.

“Yeah.” I bit into the berry. “And I mostly didn’t think about the fact I was newly single and you were—” I cut myself off, disgusted, looked down at the berries. “Fuck.”

He went back to unpacking bags. They rustled in the silence. Plastic and cardboard rustled against my bench. The bottles chimed as the fridge door opened. I had a good selection of sauces I couldn’t be bothered using.

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