The Fashion of Love | Adult F/M Romance [COMPLETE]

ch. 31 - July

Ravi and Sora travelled to the doctor's office together in companionable silence, each preoccupied with their phones. Sam was giving her a continual byplay of the Himura subversion plot. How many negative. How many positive. Who and when. Sora's vision blurred from staring at the ultra-bright screen.

Upon pulling up outside the medical center, Sora cut off her phone out of habit.

"You don't have to sit with me, Ravi. This probably won't be much fun for you."

There was paperwork to complete, a checkup, the inevitable intrusive questions. Will he want to come in? Am I ready to share that much of my life with him?

He hoisted a shoulder in a lack of concern. "I'm where I want to be."

"You're supposed to be pitching your new line today, not sitting in a doctor's office with me."

"Imogen and Gia can handle it. It's a done deal. This is just a first concept get-together."

This was ineffective at allaying Sora's concern.

"That sounds important."

"I left my sketches in their capable hands. Defiant is a-go."

"Where did you come up with that name? You didn't have one last month."

"The models walked the first dozen sample ensembles yesterday. It was a perfect run-through. I couldn't have asked for better. They all looked cool and calm and confident. They had attitude, had a bit of give 'em hell in them. They reminded me of you."

Sora's ensuing chuckle was joyless.

"You can't be serious. I don't give anybody hell."

"You gave Evelyn three kinds on Yelena's behalf and Anthony the same on your own. You're capable of it." Evelyn and Yelena were step-sisters with all the rivalry and backstabbing that frequently came with it. But Yelena was her niece, a Gallegos; Sora raised hell for her own.

Sora swallowed, ill at ease.

"The entire Evelyn affair was far from my finest hour." In back of her mind, she kept a running tally of what topics she simply could not discuss and Evelyn with Anthony was on it, forget the Evelyn and Sam affair. Evelyn had claimed to love father and son and taken sadistic pleasure in bringing both to their knees. The ripples of all her machinations lingered, further tying their families together by creeping vines, each strangling the other out of habit with no regard for decency anymore. "I doubt it was hers either."

"Nobody came out of that smelling of roses. Love, lust, family loyalty—all of it will make you crazy if you let it."

"Is that what this feeling is? That explains everything about me."

"Not the best parts of you. That's just how you're artfully made."

"That's a line if I've ever heard one. You make it all sound real."

"I'll confess it's a line, that doesn't mean it's not real. The meaning's as real as you or me."

Just sometimes, I wonder. Sora touched his chest.

"I want to share all of this with you," she waved toward the building and the car where they sat. "My health, my odds, all of what I live with every day. But I don't think I'm there yet. There are things I haven't wrapped my head around yet, and I'm not quite ready to share it all with anyone."

"Okay."

"That doesn't mean I don't love you."

"That thought never crossed my mind." He caught her hand where it rested over his heart. "There's stuff I'm keeping close, too. That's not a lack of love. Sometimes, it's love that makes us hold more back. That's fine. That's yours. Someday, it'll be mine, too."