Page 53 of So Close to You
“And you’ve been acting for weeks as if you’re trying to destroy yourself little by little,” Daphne adds sincerely, without raising her voice.
Nerissa lets out a laugh as she taps her fingers on the wood.
“You’re so observant. Always so attentive to my personal disasters.”
Daphne doesn’t respond to the provocation. That’s one of the qualities Nerissa admired—or hated—most about her. The ability to never engage in a battle when she senses the blow stems from pain. Instead, she remains silent and looks at her with infinite patience.
The waiter sets the glass down in front of Nerissa. She grabs it immediately and takes a long, deep swallow. The alcohol burns her throat and chest, but she welcomes the sensation because, for a few seconds, it pushes aside the memory of Seraphina treating her like shit.
Obviously, she doesn’t succeed. Because inside her head, a swarm of thoughts keeps replaying the icy, distant voice of Seraphina when she said, “I’d appreciate it if you maintained your professionalism.”
“She used me. Again…”
Daphne watches her in silence for a moment.
“What did she do this time?” she asks after a while.
Nerissa grips the glass between her fingers until her knuckles turn white.
“Nothing she hasn’t done before. It’s her usual pattern.”
“Then she has done something,” Daphne insists.
Nerissa closes her eyes for a moment, fighting the urge to get up and leave. It’s not exactly common to be talking about how the woman you’re in love with keeps tearing you apart in front of the woman you yourself tore apart by cheating on her for months.
She sighs.
“She’s cut me out of her life again,” she murmurs and shrugs before taking another sip of whiskey. “I was such an idiot to think that this time things would actually change, that she’d end her laughable marriage to choose me.”
Daphne lowers her head and strokes the back of her hand.
“She couldn’t even look me in the face while she told me to fuck off,” Nerissa continues. That infuriates her even more. She downs the rest of her whiskey in another long swallow and signals for another. “I’ve gone from being a real person for one weekend to becoming, once again, the problem that needs to be swept under the rug.”
“You don’t deserve to live like this, trapped in this constant cycle.”
Nerissa senses the immediate danger. Daphne has always known exactly how to touch her raw spots—not physically, but emotionally.
“Please don’t start,” Nerissa pleads, exhausted.
“I’m not attacking you,” Daphne clarifies calmly. “I’m just saying what I see.”
“Everyone ends up attacking her,” Nerissa retorts, looking up sharply.
Daphne holds her gaze without flinching.
“And don’t you think she deserves it? It seems like all she wants is to play with you. That she doesn’t care about anything else.”
Suddenly, rain beats against the pub’s windows. The music shifts to a slow melody of guitar and piano that fills thespace between them. For a moment, Nerissa feels such deep exhaustion that she almost struggles to stay upright in her seat.
Daphne reaches across the table and gently brushes a strand of hair from her forehead. The gesture is so familiar and affectionate that Nerissa’s heart sinks. With Seraphina, there are never those quiet moments. Everything with her happens in a hurry, in the shadows, as if time were always about to run out. With Daphne, on the other hand, things have always flowed naturally.
But love never follows a set of rules.
“She’s not going to change,” Daphne murmurs, without removing her hand. “She’ll never give up her last name, her investment funds, or her gala dinners for you. You know that as well as I do. And Maeve thinks the same thing.”
Nerissa looks down at her empty glass.
“Daphne… I didn’t come here for this.”
