Page 43 of Until Ace

“Beverly!” Mandy calls out, coming from the kitchen. The moment she spots my aunt standing next to me, she doesn’t hesitate. Her whole body jolts before she runs straight into the old woman’s open arms.

“I waited the whole damn night just to do this,” Beverly says as a way of greeting.

I watch, fascinated, as Mandy’s eyes close slowly like she’s experiencing pain. But at the same time, there’s a smile on her face. And then she sniffles before she loses whatever control she had.

I take two huge steps and am just in time to catch her before her knees buckle and she can crumble to the floor, where she would’ve taken Beverly with her.

“My darling girl,” Beverly coos into her hair.

It takes time, but soon Beverly works her magic, murmuring soft words in her ear, and Mandy is standing back up on her feet, looking like all is bright and cheery in the world.

But she can’t hide from me what’s going on inside her.

Not anymore.

And once I’m assured she’s going to be all right for now, I leave her with my aunt to start looking for some answers.

Although most of the answers I need, only Mandy can give me.

But those are ones I know she’s not ready to share just yet.

Chapter 9

Mandy

“Oh, baby,” Beverly says softly once she’s done with the walkthrough of my apartment. I shrug, looking everywhere but at her. I can’t speak. The sight before me is humiliating and devastating. If I say something, I know I will start crying, and I did enough of that last night.

Before I somehow found my way into Ace’s arms.

My phone taunted the tears out of me with every incoming text I couldn’t ignore.

I needed… something, so I left my cell on his nightstand and went searching for him, thinking he would give me what I needed. It didn’t come in the form I expected, but he did give me exactly what I didn’t even know I was searching for.

He gave me a safe place right inside his arms. All I did in the end was soak Ace’s shirt with my drool, while he held me in his arms as I slept the best night of sleep I’ve ever had in my life.

I expected his hands to start moving over my body, for him to take from me, since I did from him, but they never drifted.

It was something I expected, and if I’m honest with myself, it’s something I wanted him to do.

I needed him on a basic level. I needed to connect with someone, to feel something other than this grief that’s been swirling inside me like a living thing since I left my parents' house. The moment I fucking finally opened my eyes and realized I would never get any help from them.

I needed to forget everything.

But I was too scared to ask for it.

In the end, I was so exhausted from the stress of the night that I fell asleep in his arms.

“I’ll go to my place for some trash bags, and we can start getting this place back to what it was.” Beverly’s words bring me back from thinking about those early-morning hours.

I look at her, not saying anything, hoping she can see on my face how much her being here and giving me her support means to me.

As she looks at me, her eyes go soft, and a small smile lifts the corners of her lips. She walks by me to go to her apartment, and as she does, her fingers lightly touch my shoulder.

She knows what I was silently trying to tell her.

That’s the beautiful thing about Beverly; she doesn’t need words. She’s able to read anyone like a book.

How was I ever dumb enough to think I had her fooled? That I could hide anything from her?