After a year and a half of trying to move on from the what-ifs, the tides have pulled Alexandra Rivera and Zachariah Kim back together again.
*****
In the h...
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"Kaioh and I are seeing a movie." Anthony poked his head into my room. "You good?"
I looked over at him with a bored expression. "As if I hadn't lived here for over twenty years? I think I'll be fine."
He rolled his eyes, stretching his shoulders back. Though we didn't talk about relationships, I knew he was happy with Kaioh, and that made me happy. As long as I knew that, I was okay with the vague mentions.
"Just making sure," he grumbled before disappearing.
Since Dad was away on a week-long trip with friends to Vegas, I'd decided to come over for the weekend to spend time with my brother, but he'd told me tonight he was going out with Kaioh so I'd be by myself.
After the front door closed, I snuggled into the bed and let the familiar smell envelop me. At some point, I dozed off while watching the movie and was woken up by the sound of my phone ringing. When I lifted it to my face, Emmie's name appeared on the screen and just like that, the pacing of my heart soared sky-high as I was immediately flooded with mental images of Zachariah pressed up against me, sending my stomach into knots before eventually soothing me.
I'd successfully avoided her since that night, with only a few noncommittal texts sent back and forth between us, but I knew eventually I'd have to face her. Being able to successfully dodge her for this long was a fluke, and I was due for a visit soon.
Likely sooner than I was ready for if this call went the way I thought it would.
Taking a deep breath like I was ready to plunge myself into the furthest depths of the Pacific Ocean, I slid the answer button and lifted the phone to my ear.
"Hey, Ems."
She sounded too cheery at first, which was questionable. "Hey! Are you busy right now? Or later tonight."
"No," I answered cautiously. "What's up?"
"I know you probably don't want to hear about this anymore but...I finally cut things off with Jarrod. No friends. Nothing. And I kind of need to just chill somewhere and vent."
I pulled the phone away and sucked in a breath. There was no reason to be worried about this confession, but my mind went to a million different places it shouldn't have gone. Namely, the idea that Emmie had a habit of going back to old flames when she felt lonely. And if Jarrod was the one being cut off this time, that meant—
He wasn't mine. Never would be mine. But the idea of them together again left a sickly feeling in my gut.
"Of course," I quickly replied, snapping myself out of it. "I'm back at the house for a few days."
"Oh!" she remarked. "I'll come over there. I've been meaning to bring your dad something to help cheer him up. He still likes lau lau from that one place, right?"
"Yeah but he's not here right now. He went to Vegas for the week." I pulled the comforter higher as a cool breeze blew through the window. "You don't have to bring anything. We have food here. I'm sure with our two brain cells, we can manage to cook something."
