Perfect Match Enemies to lovers romance - Leia Stone Page 0,1

I was floating out in the universe searching for Colin, searching for anything that would make this pain stop. I just needed to wake up from this awful dream.

With a shaking hand, I rang the doorbell of her apartment and waited.

It was ten at night, she had a seven a.m. shift tomorrow. She was probably asleep, or worse, screwing her boyfriend John at this very moment.

The door opened and Julie stood there, brows drawn together, brown hair mussed from sleep. When her gaze fell on the hospital bag in my hand, her fingers came up to her mouth.

“Millie … what’s happened?”

She knew.

Fucking nurses, they just knew.

I had also just realized that Colin’s blood was on my fingers from when I’d tried to hold his hand, when they made me identify the body. That had been a world class mistake; his cold rigid hand didn’t squeeze back.

My fingers shook, I couldn’t speak, so I just handed her the bag like an idiot.

She took it, opened it up, peered inside at Colin’s wallet and shoes, and then sagged against the door.

That’s when I blacked out.

Ashton

I came to in the hospital. The beeping noises, bright lights, people rushing all around me, it was chaos. There was a deep throbbing pain in my chest and I felt so lightheaded I thought I might float away.

Gran’s worried gaze swam into view as she clutched her purse to her chest.

“Ash,” she sobbed.

“Ma’am, we need to get him into surgery.” A nurse held Gran back as they wheeled me past.

At the word “surgery,” I remembered the accident. The way the tree stump had impaled my chest, the way…

“Jenna!” I screamed, trying to sit up as I remembered her flying across the road with no seatbelt on. But moving made the dizziness worse and now I felt like I was going to throw up on top of it.

“Gran! Jenna?” I looked at my grandmother as they wheeled me through the double doors.

She just shook her head.

Everything inside of me died in that moment. It just went dark. I went dark inside.

When they put a mask over my face and started to sedate me for surgery, I had one wish.

Don’t let me wake up, I don’t want to wake up in a world without my twin sister.

Chapter 2

One Year Later

Millie

Julie sat across from me in her nursing scrubs as we grabbed lunch at the Chinese place near the hospital. This place was loud and I wasn’t in the mood to “people” today, but I would never pass up a lunch date with my bestie. I wouldn’t have survived the past year without her. I could almost smell the MSG, but this place was so good it was worth the food coma I would get later on.

“So, John has been acting weird. I think he’s cheating,” Julie confessed. Her brown hair was tied into a top-knot as she scowled down at her fork, twisting lo mein noodles onto the tip.

“John? Cheat on you? You’re crazy,” I assured her. John was so far from cheating on her it wasn’t even funny. I knew he wasn’t cheating, he was getting ready to propose. I’d helped him pick out the ring last week, but I needed to play it cool or I’d ruin the surprise.

Julie leaned forward and lowered her voice. “He’s all cagey and secretive. The other day I went to look through his gym bag for my yoga mat, and he freaked out.”

Fuck. He probably hid the ring in there.

“John’s not cheating,” I assured her again, making my voice a bit firmer than I probably should have.

Julie crossed her arms, glaring slightly at me. “You can’t possibly know that.”

I shrugged. “True, but I’m ninety-nine percent sure.”

Let it go, woman!

Julie furrowed her brow. “Now you’re acting weird. You’re normally super protective of me and would be offering to snoop on him. What’s going on?” She pinned me with a glare.

A grin tugged at my lips.

She was too smart to hide anything from.

“You caught me. John and I are hooking up.”

Her smile grew wide as she giggled, knowing that wasn’t possible, for many reasons.

1. I would never betray my best friend.

2. The last man’s lips to hit mine had been Colin’s.

“Seriously though—” Her face drained of color. “Ohmygod, is he going to propose?”

Dammit.

I put my head in my hands. There was no surprising this girl.

She squealed so loud that everyone stopped their lunch and stared at her.

Pulling my head from my hands, I looked at her. “Dammit, Julie, why can’t you just leave