Page 114 of All That We Are Together

I shared all the latest news. I told him about Scarlett, whom I didn’t trust any farther than I could throw her. She was empty, a pretty envelope incapable of impressing anyone longer than five minutes. And yet Leah was captivated every time she opened her mouth. Plus there was this new side of Leah that had emerged in recent weeks: her ego, her vanity.

“I don’t understand. That’s not like her.”

“What worries me is she doesn’t know what she wants,” I told him. “If this was what she’d been looking for all these years, I’d get it, if that was the future she wanted, but she doesn’t even know what she’s looking for, and that’s dangerous.”

I lit a cigarette. I couldn’t stop ruminating. I wanted to understand, but I couldn’t. And that was what it was all about, right, or…? I asked myself if this was what it meant to put yourself in the shoes of the person you wanted to share your life with.

“Let her fall,” Oliver said.

“What the hell…?”

“Go back home. Believe me, it took me years to understand that she wasn’t a little girl and that I couldn’t just bend her to my will. When I left her in Brisbane after everything that had happened with you, I swear, I was freaking out for months. I thought she was my responsibility and I felt like shit for leaving her alone when I knew she was going through bad times and crying herself to sleep every night.”

“Oliver, I don’t need you to remind me of all that.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m just saying, if she wants to stay in Paris, let her. But let her take responsibility for the decision.”

“You don’t understand,” I said as I took a long drag.

“Then try to explain it to me.”

“We’re together now. And there’s no way I’m letting her go again.”

There was a long pause; then he started laughing.

“I never thought I’d be happy to hear something like that.”

“What on earth are you smoking? Because you need to give me some.”

“Maybe when you’re back, we’ll go out one night,” he joked, but then turned serious. “It’s weird, right? This is the dead opposite of what always worried my father. I remember hearinghim say once that he was afraid she’d focus so much on her painting that she’d never set foot in an art fair or even share her work. The day of the accident, they were on their way to an art gallery in Brisbane… He’d spent days trying to convince her. And now look at her.”

I stubbed out the cigarette, still on edge. “It’s fine. Don’t say anything to her. I’ll do this myself; I don’t want to cause you any headaches.”

“Sure. You good otherwise?”

“Yeah, as long as we put aside the fact that what I’m most tempted to do is stuff your sister in a suitcase, hop the first plane, and go back home and back to our lives. After all these years, all these problems, I’ve got the feeling that we’re farther than ever from where we should be right now.”

104

Axel

“Leah, do you believe in fate?”

“It depends.”

“On what?”

“On the day. Sometimes I do; sometimes I don’t.”

“You think we were fated to be together?”

“Are you serious?” She laughed.

“Maybe there’s some things we can’t choose because they choose us.”

“It sounds pretty when you say it like that.” She was smiling. “I love this. Being in bed with you for hours and just talking. Or looking at you. Or touching you.”

“I’m interested in this touching thing,” I whispered. “Can you give me details?”