Page 37 of So Close to You
“Okay. It’s definitely serious.”
Callum Ashcombe appears from the kitchen with two small bottles of beer in his hand. His expression, already somber, hardens when he sees her. Three years older than her, he retains the presence of someone accustomed to solving problems with his hands rather than words. His dark hair is cut very short, and the sleeves of his shirt are rolled up to his forearms. He always seems ready to get into an argument.
“Weren’t you supposed to be preparing for two surgeries?”
“One of them got canceled,” Nerissa replies.
Her brother watches her with a furrowed brow.
“Could it be that Mrs. Chapman has broken your heart again?”
Nerissa glares at him, but her brother has already sat down on the arm of the sofa, watching her with that mix of concern and frustration she knows so well.
“Don’t start, Callum.”
“Then don’t come in here looking like you’re at a funeral,” he retorts, taking a long swig of his beer.
Maeve steps in before the tension escalates further, placing herself between the two with a conciliatory gesture.
“Stop grumbling, both of you, and sit down already.”
Nerissa drapes her coat over the back of the sofa and sinks into the darkest corner of the living room. Her brother’s apartment, located in Ancoats, occupies a former factory building converted into a loft. An open laptop and the remains of Thai food sit on the coffee table. Everything exudes a domestic normality that, at that moment, only serves to worsen her unease.
Because in her head, she can only imagine Seraphina’s perfect life, as if she were a prize to be taken down from a shelf from time to time.
“Can’t take it anymore? Yeah, right,” she thinks.
Maeve sits down across from her and carefully sets the beer on the table.
“Come on, talk. What happened?”
“I don’t feel like talking right now,” Nerissa mutters, rubbing her eyes wearily.
“Well, I’d say that look means you’re two drinks away from doing something monumentally stupid.”
Callum snorts.
“Too late for that, I’m afraid.”
Nerissa clenches her jaw, feeling irritation rise in her throat.
“Can you please not turn this into one of your five-minute lectures?”
“I can try,” Callum replies, though his tone makes it clear he won’t.
Maeve stretches out a leg and nudges Nerissa’s knee, seeking her gaze.
“What happened?”
It takes Nerissa several seconds to answer. She pulls her phone out of her pocket, and the screen lights up again with Seraphina’s message. Those cold, definitive words seem to burn into her retinas. Maeve reads it over her shoulder, and her expression changes instantly, shifting from curiosity to compassion.
“I see…” she whispers, moving a little closer.
“I’m sure she realized what she has with her husband,” Nerissa explains with a bitter smile. “They must have played the perfect family in some cabin with a fireplace, and she must have realized what’s going on.”
Callum lets out a laugh, almost cruel.
“Well, congratulations to Mrs. Chapman for finally discovering common sense.”
