Who We Could Be - Chelsea M. Cameron Page 0,12

the surface. “Fuck it. Let’s do it your way. But we’re using plates.”

So we ate on the floor, but we used plates and actual napkins, and had sweet tea from wine glasses. I managed not to spill too much on her rug.

“I should just lay down a drop cloth or something when you come over,” she said as we both attempted to scrub out a sauce stain.

“This is your fault for buying a beige rug. Who owns a beige rug? Honestly.” I did my best and Monty came after me with the special stain spray. She didn’t seem to want to talk about everything that happened with TJ, but I couldn’t help but flinch every time I saw her left hand because the ring was still there.

“I wonder how much I could get for it,” she said, freezing mid-scrub and staring at her hand.

“You might have better luck trying to hock the diamond than the entire ring. Not a whole lot of market for used rings. Bad luck, you know.” I gave up on the rug and went back to shoving pizza in my face.

“Yeah, that’s true. I guess I’m going to find out. Fucking hell, Tessa, we spent so much money on non-refundable deposits.” She covered her face with her hands and groaned.

“Hey, hey,” I said, putting the pizza aside and reaching for her shoulder. “Don’t think about that shit. You don’t need to worry about it. We’ll take care of it. We’ll figure it out.” That part was going to fucking suck. I knew that she’d spent a lot of money that she didn’t really have on this, and she wasn’t going to get a lot of that back. On the bright side, TJ had spent a lot that he wasn’t going to get back, so there was a small consolation there. Plus, he was still paying off the ring debt. I hoped he defaulted on the loan and ruined his fucking credit.

“I’m just so tired, Tess.” Monty rolled onto her side and curled up into a ball.

I wiped my hands and then started stroking her long hair. She closed her eyes and sighed. “That feels really nice. I haven’t said it, but thank you for being here. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“The feeling is mutual, Ford. This is for all those times you’ve saved my sorry ass. The least I can do is be here for you through this.” Her eyes fluttered open and she gave me an exhausted smile that wasn’t quite all the way there. I was going to make it my mission in life to get her to smile again.

Oh, and destroy TJ. Completely and utterly destroy. He was going to wish he was dead when I was done with him.

MONTY FELL ASLEEP ON the floor as I stroked her hair so I did my best to try and scoop her up and carry her to bed, but it didn’t really work, so I had to wake her up a little and help her walk to her bedroom. I got her under the covers and she mumbled something, but I didn’t catch it.

Once I was sure that she was asleep again, I backed out of the room and cleaned up the mess from the pizza and filled her water bottle with water and ice and brought it back to her. I also made sure she had her phone nearby.

“We’ll figure it out,” I whispered, before leaving her again.

There was no way I was going home, so I made up the couch for myself like I had hundreds of times before. Monty always kept fresh sheets and extra pillows in the “Tessa closet” as she called it. I also had a bunch of clothes and other things in there. I sent my parents and my aunts a quick text about what was going on and that I was staying with Tessa for the night to make sure she was going to be okay.

Let us know if you need anything, including hiding the body Aunt V said. I told her that wasn’t necessary, but good to know.

I also did a deep dive on TJ’s social media, but didn’t see anything incriminating because he didn’t post all that often. He must have had secret accounts he’d been using. Fuck, I hated him so much. There might have been some sort of satisfaction that all my suspicions about him had been confirmed, but that feeling was destroyed by the anger I had for the way