Chapter 12. Not Easy

Sienna

Cherry has terminal cancer. Yeah—that sentence had been stuck with me since Alex dropped me off. It lodged in my head the moment she said it, so casually, as if she’d already accepted her fate. It hurt to look at them both, knowing one of them was counting her days.

I didn’t know why it hurt so much—a woman I’d only met today, and already the idea of her dying felt like a physical ache. The doctor hadn’t given a timeframe. A year, two, a few months—anything was possible. I didn’t know how Thomas would cope; from what I’d seen, he loved her so much—it made my chest ache.

Watching them that day, despite the tragedy, filled a gaping hole inside me. It was painful and oddly beautiful to see love still exist so fiercely in this stupid world full of shallow people.

The night passed like that—tossing, turning, replaying why Alex was there. Why was he in my thoughts, in my life all of a sudden? And why wasn’t I doing everything I could to push him away?