No One But Us

by Elizabeth O'Roark

  When it hurts too much to keep lying here, I climb to my feet and go upstairs for my suitcases. There have been moments all summer when I’ve felt like I can’t take any more.

  But now I know it for certain.

  The Porsche, for once, is not blocked in. Leaving is easy. As if it’s what I was meant to do all along.

  Chapter 53

  JAMES

  I assume, when I wake up and discover Elle’s not beside me, that she’s gone to her room. I’m not sure why she bothered, since Ginny already knows. I wait impatiently for her to come downstairs so we can talk.

  Ginny comes downstairs first, eyes narrowed at me as she marches over to get coffee. “I can’t fucking believe you. How could you do that? Do you have any idea how badly Mom would flip if she knew?”

  “Yeah, I do, since I just watched it happen on Friday night.”

  She grows still. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that I went up there while Elle was with Ryan and told Mom and Dad everything.”

  “What? Why? Why on Earth would you do that over some little fling?”

  “It’s not a fling, Ginny,” I say. “I’m in love with her.”

  It feels good to say it aloud again, though I probably should have said it to Elle before I told my parents and my sister.

  To say my parents were stunned when I showed up on their doorstep is an understatement. To say they were displeased when I told them I was in love with Ginny’s best friend... Well, there’s really no word to adequately describe how true that is.

  “You love her? Oh my God, James. You’ve really fucking lost it. You’re moving to France in a few months, but you just had to run up there and tell Mom that?”

  “I’m not going to France. I told Mom and Dad I’d go back to law school if they’d help Elle get this whole Edward thing shut down.”

  “And they agreed?”

  I nod. It took them fucking long enough, though. I stayed in Connecticut until well after midnight, and when I left they were still waffling. My father wasn’t sure they could shut it down that fast, and my mother was just flat-out refusing to help. It wasn’t until last night, just before my shift started, that they called to tell me it was taken care of.

  The only thing I actually agreed to was finishing law school, but I imagine they’re hoping I’ll still fall in line and join the firm. Which means they’re in for a disappointment.

  “It’s already done,” I tell Ginny. “There will be no article.”

  All the hostility in her face slowly recedes. “You care about her that much?”

  “I told you already; I’m in love with her.”

  “I love Alex, but I wouldn’t give up my future for him.”

  “I’m not giving up my future; I’m postponing it. And you wouldn’t even question how far you’d go for Alex if you loved him enough. Given that you’ve been cheating on him, though, I’m guessing you already realize that.”

  “I can’t believe Elle told you that.”

  “She didn’t, Ginny. She never said a fucking word. Unlike you, who’s apparently spent the entire summer bitching about her to Allison. Do you know how much shit in that article had to have come from you?”

  “I wasn’t bitching... Okay, maybe part of the time I was, but mostly Allison would just ask questions about all of you, and I’d answer. She was going to be my future sister-in-law. I didn’t think it was a big deal to tell her that stuff.”

  “The only girl I’ve ever dated who might end up your sister-in-law is the one you just screwed over. I won’t blame her if she never speaks to you again.”

  Ginny hops on the counter and stares at the floor. “Fuck. I guess her owe her an apology. Is she up?”

  “How would I know? You’re the one who shares a room with her.”

  She raises a brow. “Elle didn’t sleep in my room last night.” She crosses the room and peers out the window before she looks back at me, her forehead creased. I meet her there. That’s when I realize things are a lot worse than I thought.

  The Porsche is gone.

  Chapter 54

  ELLE

  It’s almost noon when I finally get out of bed. I pad down the hall, surveying the damage. When I arrived in the middle of the night, the house was full of people. There’s nothing like coming home to discover someone laying out lines of cocaine on the table you made in Girl Scouts when you were 12 to make you lose your shit.

  They were resistant to my suggestions that they leave, naturally. On an unrelated note, they had a sudden change of heart once I started calling the cops.

  I cook a frozen pizza and sit at my parents’ kitchen table, unable to eat. How do you manage to lose everything all at once the way I did? James, Ginny, my reputation, any lingering respect I had for my parents. It’s all gone, and I just feel empty inside. I’m not sure if my dad will pay for tuition now, and at the moment, I don’t even care. I’m not sure I want to go through the next year being gawked at every time I walk in or out of class anyway.

  There’s a knock on the door. I choose to ignore it. First, because I’m still in the boxers and tank I woke up in. Second, because there’s no one out there I want to talk to. It’s either someone who isn’t here for me, or it’s a reporter, and that’s even worse.

  The knocking persists. And persists. I relax when it stops, then nearly jump out of my skin when it comes from behind me, on my parents’ French glass doors. Ginny stands there with bleeding legs and a solemn expression on her face. I guess it’d be hard to pretend I’m not home at this point.

  I open the door.

  “It’s about fucking time,” she says, walking in.

  “Why are your legs bleeding?”

  Because I fell climbing your parents’ mile-high security fence,” she says. “And I cut my stomach on one of the spikes at the top. She lifts her shirt to show me a jagged, two-inch cut. “Do you have Neosporin?”

  Once I’ve located the first aid kit and slid it over to her, I ask why she’s here.

  “Because I was kind of an asshole,” she replies.

  “Kind of?”

  She shrugs. “You’ll forgive me.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Because your parents are way worse than me, and you always forgive them,” she says. “But I’m sorry.”

  “For which of the many things you did?”

  She sighs and snaps the first aid kit shut. “All of them. But seriously, Elle. I never meant any harm when I told Allison about the flowers. I was just letting off some steam, and Allison... It’s like she’s a master at helping you find every poisonous thought in your head, but instead of sorting them out, she makes them grow.”

  “Letting off steam about what, Ginny? What exactly did I do?”

  “You didn’t do anything. It was just... When Allison found out you were coming down, she starting putting these ideas in my head—about how you were the kind of girl who had to have all the attention, had to win over every guy.”

  “She didn’t even know me…” I argue.

  “I know that’s not you, and I told her that, and then she says, ‘So you never liked someone who liked her instead?’ and of course that did happen. It happened all the time when we were in middle school. Every guy I ever liked wanted you instead and—”

  “That’s not true,” I counter. “Tons of boys liked you.”

  “But they always liked you first, Elle,” she says quietly. “And the thing is, I kind of had a crush on someone at the beach, and two seconds after you got to the beach you were spending all this time with him, and I started to believe her theory. Especially after she caught you guys together—”

  “Wait,” I say, cutting her off. “There is so much to clarify in that statement. ‘Him’? Who’s ‘him’? The only guy I hung with aside from James is Max.”

  She lets out a heavy exhale.

  “Max?” I screech. “He’s your crush? You spend all your free time maligning him and lecturing him. You like him? Like that?”


  “Yes,” she says reluctantly. “I like him. Like that. But he was always hitting on you. You know, all ‘Ooh, Elle looks just like her mom’ and shit like that.”

  “He hits on everyone,” I say.

  “Yeah, I know. But Allison had me convinced the two of you were together, and then she caught you in bed with him, and—”

  “What?” I gasp. “She didn’t ‘catch’ us. I showered in his bathroom because you locked me out, and he was in there with another girl when I got out. We were in the same room for all of five seconds, and Allison knew it.”

  Ginny nods, her fair skin getting a little paler, and she studies her clasped hands. “I’m sorry. She thought you were sleeping with Max and trying to sleep with James and I… Until I saw all those lies she fed the tabloids, I sort of thought she might be right.”

  “Let’s get something straight,” I say. “Allison never for one moment thought I was with Max. She just played you like a fiddle, and you allowed the fact that she made law review to trump 16 years of friendship. And the fact that you’d be so horrified by the idea of me with James, but want him with someone like her just blows my mind.”

  She hangs her head. “I’m not horrified by the idea of you with James. At all. I think you’re probably perfect for him. But my mom isn’t doing well. Things have been bad this summer, and I knew it would set her off, you guys together. And Allison... She and my mom were tight. Like, my mom really leaned on her when my grandfather died. I never thought in a million years she could turn out to be the person she is.”

  “That’s great that she helped your mom, but you were practically planning their wedding when James clearly wanted nothing to do with her.”

  She flinches. “It was selfish... I just... Look, I don’t want to take over the law firm. You know that. But if James doesn’t, it falls on me. So when Allison told me she thought he might be wavering about joining the firm, I kind of freaked out, and she just had this plan. She was going to keep him on track, and they’d take it over together—you know, eventually replace my parents? And I’d be off the hook. I got carried away with it, and I stopped thinking about what was best for James. So I guess I owe both of you an apology.”

  My shoulders settle, and I sink back into my chair. “Well, I’m still pissed, but you did drive all this way to apologize, and you inflicted bodily injury on yourself to do it, so I guess I’ll get over it eventually.”

  “I didn’t drive all this way to apologize,” she says. “I drove all this way because you’re an idiot who’s incapable of answering her phone, and my brother is going batshit crazy trying to find you.”

  I slap my forehead. I turned it off when I went to bed and never turned it back on. “I was going to text him. I just hadn’t figured out what to say, and I guess I thought he’d just be sort of relieved I was gone.”

  “Relieved? I’ve never seen him this upset in my life. When you didn’t answer, he fucking drove to New York. He thought you’d gone back to the apartment.”

  I groan. “I’m sorry. I had no idea he’d...care that much.”

  “Well, he does, and he’s driving back from New York right now, so get your ass in the car and come home.”

  “Look, it’s nice that you guys went to all this effort, but I’m not coming back. James just feels guilty, and he doesn’t need to be. He was always upfront with me about how this would end.”

  Her laugh is half-humor and half surprise. “Elle, it’s not guilt. He’s miserable because he misses you, and you won’t answer his calls.”

  I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to hear anything that might make me feel bad for James when I’m sitting here brokenhearted and nowhere near recovering.

  “What difference does it make now?” I ask. “I start school in a little over a week, and he’s moving to France.”

  “No, he’s not. He told my parents he’d stay in law school if they’d help you. So they did. Killing a story about a 19 year old being preyed upon by a middle-aged man was child’s play for them, especially with the voicemails to prove it. They had the whole thing squashed by last night.”

  “But why?” I gasp. “After everything he went through to get there? How could he give that up?”

  “He did it,” she says with a small smile, “because he’s apparently in love with you. But I probably ought to let him tell you that himself.”

  Chapter 55

  ELLE

  It’s dark by the time we get back to the beach. James, expecting my arrival, is waiting out on the front step. He looks broken, and I want to weep—half because I feel bad that I worried him and half because only now can I admit how much I missed him, how sick I’ve been, thinking I’d never see him again.

  He is across the yard before I’m out of the car, and he crushes me to his chest the second I’m out. “Never, ever, ever do that again.”

  “I don’t want you to go back to law school,” I say, my words muffled by his T-shirt. “You can’t give up everything because of me.”

  “The FBI is going to let me start in a year. I’m more use to them with those degrees anyway.”

  “But...you spent the whole summer sweating over this. You can’t just give up now.”

  “I already did. Just swear to me that you will never take off like that again.”

  “I’m sorry. I thought...you’d be relieved.”

  “Jesus,” he says, pulling back to study my face. “I’m sorry I let you think that, even for a second. I’m sorry I insisted on hiding this, and that I didn’t say the things I should have said a long time ago. I’m in love with you. Since the moment you walked out on the deck, nothing has been the same.”

  I refuse to cry, because I put on mascara while Ginny drove us back, and I don’t want to look like Alice Cooper. My eyes well in spite of my best efforts. “I love you too. But I think you’ve known that since I was about four.”

  He smiles. “I was 10. It meant slightly less to me than it does now.”

  I start to agree, but then I stop. “But James, what about your mom? Isn’t she going to freak out about my age, and the fact that she hates my parents?”

  “She’ll get over it,” he says, pressing his mouth gently to mine. “She has to. You’re permanent.”

  Chapter 56

  ELLE

  He holds my hand as we walk into the kitchen the next morning, and the laughter begins almost immediately.

  “I think there was some kind of break-in on the street last night,” says Max.

  For a moment I believe him, but when I turn, he’s grinning broadly.

  “Yeah,” says Ginny. “I heard all the screaming. It sounded like someone was being murdered.”

  “You know, Elle,” says Max thoughtfully, “if that whole broadcast thing doesn’t work out, I think you could totally make it in porn.”

  “And now,” says James, turning his angry brows toward the table, “you’ve carried it too far.”

  “You deserve it,” says Ginny. “I’m going to be scarred for life. On the bright side, it’s good that you finally lost your virginity.”

  Max chortles at this. “Right. James hasn’t been a virgin since the two of you were learning to read.”

  His laughter gets cut off by a sharp look from James. “It’s only 9 AM, and you’re already pissing me off,” he warns.

  “Well, now that it’s out in the open,” says Max, grinning broadly, “I’ll go ahead and admit that all those friends who stayed here? I had them come in just to fuck with you. I was hoping you’d get so pissed off you’d admit to the whole thing.” He laughs. “I wish I had a picture of you that night, James. You were about to lose your shit.”

  “Come on. It’s time for yoga,” Ginny tells Max. She turns to us. “There are waffles in foil on the stovetop. And just so we’re clear, the kitchen and that table are completely off-limits if you two can’t keep your hands off each other for an entire meal.”

  I groan my embarrassment when they leave, but James is laughing silently, shoulders shaking as he tr
ies to hold it in.

  “Stop laughing,” I say. “It’s humiliating.”

  “Not for me,” he says, encircling my waist and pulling me close. He plants a kiss on the top of my head. “And fortunately, now we both have lots of time to fill.”

  Brian fired us for walking out during our shifts the other night. I can’t say either of us is all that broken up about it.

  “What was that last bit Ginny said? I think she was suggesting the table or the counter?”

  I laugh. “Yes. I’m pretty sure that’s what she was trying to say.”

  He kisses me, a sweet kiss that slowly slides into one that is less sweet and more purposeful. He lifts me up onto the counter. “Then let’s start right here.”

  Chapter 57

  ELLE

  Tuesday is the big day. I wake when it’s still dark and rest my hand on James’ chest, soothing myself with his even breathing and solidity. No matter how today turns out, I have him. It may take a while, but as long as I’m with him, I know everything will sort itself out eventually.

  “What time is it?” he asks.

  “Not even 6,” I whisper. “Go back to sleep.”

  He pulls me into him, kissing my forehead. “Why are you up?”

  “Nervous.” I sigh.

  He rolls toward me, completely awake now, and pushes my hair back from my face. “I think it’s going to be okay,” he says. “I really do.”

  I nod, wishing I felt as confident as he does.

  “And worst case, we both drop out of school and go live in a cabin in the woods and forage for food until it all dies down,” he suggests. “And you’ll probably get pregnant because we have nothing to do in the cabin but have sex all day, and we’ll end up staying there like that hillbilly family on The Simpsons.”