Page 54 of Once Upon a Lie

Somewhere between the hum of the city outside and the warmth of his chest against my back, the noise in my head fades. I don’t remember falling asleep. I just know that for the first time all day, I don’t feel like I’m fighting an invisible enemy.

17

Shane

9:05 a.m.

The bed’s still warm, her soft cinnamon-and-vanilla scent still clings to the pillows, and the sheets are tangled where she slept beside me last night, but despite all that, when I wake up, Valentina Cordone is gone.

I get out of bed and head into the living room, but the couch is empty, too, and the bathroom is dark and quiet.

The panic, the shaking, the way she curled against me until she finally fell asleep. It all feels weirdly dreamlike now, like some hallucination born from exhaustion, but I know it’s not.

She was here, curled to the heat of me as I anchored her body with my comfort.

Sighing heavily and rubbing at my eyes, I head to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee and reevaluate a fuck ton of life choices that have led me here.

A cuddle in bed shouldn’t be fucking groundbreaking for a thirty-seven-year-old man. It shouldn’t have him wondering if he’s been missing out on the meaning of life and—

Suddenly, I notice it.

The blanket folded neatly on the couch. The pillow set just right. And a sticky note on the counter, written in tidy script.

Thanks for letting me crash. And for, you know, everything else (a.k.a. saving my life).

-Teeny

Yeah, you know what? Fuck the homemade coffee.

It doesn’t take me long to get dressed and head out the door.

By the time I reach The Hole Story, I’m past the moping stage and well entrenched in the throes of overconfidence. The sidewalks smell like roasted beans and rain, and a line has already formed outside the door, but I buzz by it like I’m the proud owner of a Disney FastPass and a bed this woman didn’t sneak out of.

Valentina is inside, hair pulled up and sporting a flour-dusted yellow sundress and apron, and moving behind the counter like she didn’t almost get murdered by an AC unit yesterday and have a panic attack in my apartment last night. She looks busy, but more importantly, she looks fucking beautiful. And impressively resilient. If it weren’t for the bandage on her arm, you’d never guess her condo got destroyed less than twenty-four hours ago.

I step inside her shop, the bell chiming over my head as I pass the threshold, and she looks up from the register to meet my eyes. When an instant smile lights up her features, I buzz right past overconfident and slide straight into cocky.

Unlike every other encounter we’ve had in the last almost month, she looks happy to see me.

“Oh my God,” Valentina calls out. “Speak of the devil.”

Sunnie doesn’t even look at Valentina first. She looks straight at me. “Well, if it isn’t Smokin’ Hot Shane the Superhero himself!”

“Hot damn! It’s the man of the hour!” Cher exclaims. “Protector of balconies. Slayer of rogue AC units.”

“Wow. I had no idea news traveled so incredibly fast,” I say. “But I’m a big fan of the nickname.”

Valentina groans and presses a hand to her forehead, laughing despite herself as she eyes Sunnie and Cher with annoyance. “I told you both that you needed to stop giving people nicknames and pretending we’re all in on them.”

“Pretty sure that’s not at all what you said,” Sunnie counters. “The way I remember it, Teeny, the words ‘Please don’t be weird’ are what came out of your pretty little mouth that one time Cher tried calling that rodeo dude Yeehaw.”

Valentina rolls her eyes on a laugh as she finishes checking out the current customer at her register. She hands the man a brown paper bag filled to the brim with bagels and tells him to have a nice day.

But Cher is now leaning across the counter, her chin resting on her elbows as she eyes me with a curious stare. “So, I have a question, Shane.”

“Okay . . .”

“Are you always so protective and manly for all women, or do you only leap off buildings for ones named Valentina?”