"I'm kind of surprised to see him here again," Jess states the next day, making me look up to notice her staring at Enzo.

Again, he's standing close to the entrance, watching carefully each person entering and leaving the boutique.

Sensing my gaze, he turns his head towards me. His serious eyes soften and he gives me a little smile.

I look away. Clearing my throat, I focus on the clothes in my hands. "Hmm?"

Jess turns her head towards me, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, he's definitely your ex. But why is he still here? Just standing there and not doing anything?"

I let out a little sigh. What do I reply to that?

Oh yeah, my ex's a secret agent. And he's my bodyguard because you see, I'm a woman in danger.

I shrug a shoulder and turn towards her, deciding that there's so harm in telling her a part of the truth. For some reasons, I don't want to lie to her.

"He's my bodyguard," I say calmly.

Her eyes widen. "Holy shit, what?"

"I said, he's—"

"I got it the first time." She rolls her eyes before she gets closer to me, curiosity and excitement crossing her face. "A bodyguard, really? Are you a princess or a queen or some shit?"

She pauses, whistling lowly. "Wouldn't be surprised. I mean, look at your hair—"

"Jess, I'm definitely not a princess," I mutter, remembering then that this is what Enzo likes to call me. Or used to call me. He's not doing it often now, and I'm perfectly fine with that.

She's waiting for me to say more. I shake my head before I continue. "It's... complicated. A long, long story."

"I have all the time in the world."

"You don't," her mother interjects, walking past the both of us and giving Jess a look.

She sighs and turns towards me. "All right then. I'm fine with a bit of mystery." She winks, smiling. "He's hot."

I roll my eyes and ignore her last statement.

Someone enters the boutique. I look up and find Sasha smiling brightly at me before she notices Enzo and starts getting in flirt mode.

I don't know why it annoys me.

Still, I have to make sure she's fine after last time. So I force a smile and wait until she walks away from Enzo and comes to see me.

When she does, she winks at me. "I think he may be interested. You don't mind, do you? Or are you both together? Although I've never seen you with anybody since I know you."

I don't realize I'm clenching my fists and that I take a step closer to her until Jess grabs my arm. Blinking, I shake my head.

What is wrong with me, suddenly? I know Sasha and her tendencies to flirt with anybody and everything. I shouldn't be mad.

Or jealous?

Nope. I'm not.

I ignore what she said and cross my arms. "Are you okay? You know, with what happened last time we saw each other..."

But what happened, actually? She probably doesn't have a clue that a murderer-and-probably-leader-of-a-criminal-organization-who-has-anger-issues was there.

Her smile falters and she purses her lips. "Oh, you mean when you ditched me for some reasons? And left me with that hot guy? Although I wasn't angry about that, he was taken. Married, even. And too serious."

Yep, with my best friend. So stay away from him.

I'm surprised by my own thoughts. I mean, Sasha is also my best friend. Right?

Is she even my friend? Or was I using her because of my fucking loneliness?

We're so different. I don't recall how we started to talk. But when I needed to forget about everything, she was there to convince me to go out. She tried to match me with a few guys, but I quickly realized they were all fuckboys.

No thanks.

And they weren't Enzo.

I groan. Shut up, stupid inner voice.

Noticing Jess beside me, Sasha gives her a tight smile. They know each other but have never been friends. Another thing I just realize.

"Sasha," Jess starts, faking a smile. "How's life?"

I bite my lip. This is so awkward. Why am I suddenly seeing things from a different point of view? Looking closely at Sasha, I don't understand. I know that in high school, she would have been the superficial girl annoying me. Like I said before, she's not afraid to flirt, and I guess that's fine. In high school, I had fun with that, too. I didn't date a lot, but flirting was fun.

Funny how things changed so quickly with one boy.

Sasha brings her hair over her right shoulder, raising her chin up. "Life's fantastic. Still working here even after college, I see."

I sense Jess' anger vibrating throughout her whole body, but she keeps her smile and replies, shocking me.

"Still going after guys that are taken, I see."

Furrowing my eyebrows, I turn towards her. Wait a minute...

Enzo's not taken.

I open my mouth to argue but have no words to say. I don't want to give Sasha any hope. Selfish? Maybe.

I don't want to see Enzo with someone else. I think that might hurt much more than him being back in my life after he left.

Sasha then whirls around and leaves, making me blink in surprise. Normally, you go after your friend to reassure her or something, right?

But somehow, I stay where I am, because I don't feel anything at all as I watch her walk past Enzo.

However, she stops just before she walks through the door and takes out something from her purse. A pen.

Quickly, she grabs Enzo's hand, and I see him about to react with his agent's reflexes, but he holds back just in time when he notices her. Frowning, he lets her use the pen on his hand. My mouth drops open.

She's definitely writing her phone number.

I grit my teeth so hard it hurts. The bitch.

"The bitch," Jess voices out loud for me, glancing in my direction.

I keep a neutral expression—at least I hope I do—and watch as she turns around and gives us a wink.

She then leaves a perplexed Enzo, who glances down at his hand. He sighs and rolls his eyes. Then stops, and glances in my direction.

Blinking, I look down at my hands. I unclench them, shaking my head.

You're not jealous. You're not jealous.

"Honestly, I don't understand how you became friends with her in the first place." Jess frowns, shaking her head.

I shrug. "Sometimes when you're lonely, you do things or hang out with people even though you don't want to."

Her eyes soften. "Babe, you know that if you ever feel like that again, I'm here, right? I know we don't hang out a lot, but we should."

I nod. "I know. It's okay now. And yeah, I just realized how Sasha and I are so different."

Jess snorts. "She's a bitch, you're a sweetheart."

I scoff. "Stop lying. You probably haven't seen me when I'm pissed yet."

"All I know is that your man is still watching you."

I glare at her, blushing. "He's not my man, Jess. He's—nobody. Nothing."

"Riiiight. Okay. Invite me to your wedding." She smiles and winks at me, but the word wedding makes me tense.

She notices and loses her smile. "You okay?"

Nodding, I turn around and walk a bit, not wanting to think about it again.

*

Enzo and I sit silently on the couch when both our phones buzz with a new message.

Jake: Celebrating bd with this Sunshine. Look at her, dammit

I smile, shaking my head. I start replying to the group chat.

Alex: You guys have fun, but not too much since i'm not there! xoxo

"They are too cute. It makes me want to throw up," I say jokingly, but not really since they are goals.

Enzo chuckles, putting his phone away. Compared to us, they did it. They have everything they ever wanted. They're happy, and it makes me emotional to think that it all started in high school.

"I shipped them first," I declare, glancing at Enzo.

He frowns. "Uh, no. I saw it coming before you. It was so obvious."

I narrow my eyes. "Elena made it obvious the day she declared he was his cousin. I knew he couldn't be just that."

Enzo smiles a little. "Right. It feels like it all happened so long ago."

I nod. "And now everything is happening again." I pause. "You, Elena, Jake, me. Secret agents and a normal girl. A murderer wanting to get to me. Who knows, maybe I'll get kidnapped as well?"

Enzo loses his smile and stares at me with a serious expression. "Don't say that. I won't let that happen."

He pauses and before I know it, he grabs my hand and intertwines his fingers with mine. "I can't let that happen."

I look at our hands. "I was just joking, Enzo. And it's not like it would be the first time I get—"

"Alex."

I glance up at his face and notice our sudden proximity. I hold his gaze.

"I'm kidding, okay?" I mumble, wanting to look away, but somehow not being able to.

Enzo doesn't look away either. Five long seconds pass until I can't take it anymore and drop my gaze on our hands again. This time, I notice something and drop his hand.

"Sasha left her phone number," I state, raising my eyebrows. I hope I don't look crazy right now.

Like jealous. Me, jealous? Ah, right.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Nope.

Enzo looks at his hand and blinks. "Right. Forgot about that. Your friend has death wishes. I almost broke her arm before I realized who she was."

I almost say something like 'You should have', but then realize how crazy that is and would give myself a WTF look if I had a mirror.

Enzo suddenly stands up, glancing down at me. "You coming?"

Confused, I frown. "Where?"

He smirks a little before he extends his hand towards me. "I need help to wash my hand and her number."

My mouth drops open and I close it quickly, biting my lip. "Um, are you sure? I mean, she seems pretty interested."

He sighs. "I don't need it."

Seeing as I'm not taking his hand, he does it himself and helps me up. "Why?" I finally ask, following after him.

"I have you," is his simple reply.

Ah, shit. Why did he have to say something like that?

"I'm annoying, stubborn, and unstable," I state when we reach the bathroom.

Enzo whistles lowly, glancing at me in surprise. "Is your head okay? You just admitted the truth?"

I punch him on the arm, more hurting myself in the process. "Shut up."

Enzo smiles, his brown eyes warm and beautiful to look at.

Don't think that, goddammit.

"I have a thing for red hair, anyway," he murmurs, taking a washcloth.

My heart skips a beat. "Enzo—"

"I know," he cuts me off. He opens the water, not looking at me. "I'm an idiot. An asshole. The past is still haunting us and probably always will."

Pausing, he turns towards me with the wet washcloth and the soap. Shaking my head, I take the washcloth without meeting his gaze. I start washing away the numbers written on his hand, gritting my teeth.

He's right. The past will always be there to stand in our way. Still, we're making progress, I guess.

However, we can't make progress if he keeps saying things to me like what he says next.

"I need no phone numbers from anyone if I have you."

I pause, glancing up at his face. Ah, he's serious.

Well, damn. There go my ovaries. My heart, our progress.

Taking a deep breath, I glance down and realize all the numbers have faded away. Happily, I take a step back.

"There you go," I say.

No Sasha that stands between us anymore.

But everything else is, right? Like the past. Like the secrets we have.

I sigh. How is everything going to turn out, I have no idea. I'm afraid of the consequences of... everything.

Let's just hope the future holds a bit of good for me.

For us.

*

Next chapter is the reunion of all my babies! Are you excited? I am!

Sorry for the slow updates. College is killing me and right now, I'm procrastinating on everything for this chapter. 🙃

Again, I hope you liked the chapter! Make sure to vote if you did. 💛

I will see you in the next chapter!

Audrey