I should be in Seattle finalizing all the details for my trip to Argentina and then Costa Rica. Instead, I’m sitting next to my friend Ainsley Janine—better known as Nine—while listening to her future plans. She was back home from her therapy, and I came only because my gut told me I might not see her for a few years. However, before I could say something, my stomach twisted with the sight of her dry tears. There was no way I could leave without knowing what the hell happened to her. Porter, her asshole ex-boyfriend, had struck again.

“I want to learn how to live, do all that I couldn’t because I lived under his magic spell.” Ainse brushes away the curls lingering around her face as she talks about the asshole she dated since the age of sixteen. “That's what you get when you live an enclosed life.” She gestures to the house where was raised and lived hidden from the outside world. While growing up, I thought it was cool that she had such a big home, but weird that she barely went outside the walls of the compound.

Ainse is the daughter of two celebrities who liked to keep their lives private. Being famous makes a person fair game for the media. A famous marriage is like honey for the bees, except her parents aren’t only famous— they’re also two men. Same-sex couples were frowned upon back in the eighties when they got together. Adding the fact that they had three biological children would’ve been a parade. Christian Decker and Gabe Colt worked hard to make sure their children didn’t become part of the media circus, but there were still side effects. The isolation affected their children, Ainsley the most. Aisne is better now; she’s working on her shit. She’s getting her life on track, fixing her issues with her parents, and moving on from her abusive, shithead boyfriend.

“Dates, nightclubs, bars, movie theaters.” She tells me all about the things she never did and plans to do. “The venues I only visited backstage. I want to concentrate on being me.”

I don’t want her to go to bars, dates, or nightclubs. Well, she can go with me, but not on a date—as friends.

“If one day a great guy comes along and offers that thing I want, I won’t shut him down because of my past,” Ainsley finishes, after explaining why she spoke to her scumbag ex-boyfriend on the phone when she should avoid him—forever.

“That’s a mouth full.” I can’t think of anything else to say after she drops the bomb: she’s thinking about falling in love—again. How could she think about the next time when one fucking asshole cheated and emotionally abused her? That was plenty of evidence that should teach her to never again let her heart lead.

Love: A sentiment that is unreal and usually leaves someone bleeding. Never happened to me; I won’t let it. “What’s that thing you want from your mysterious guy?” That’s better than telling her she’s fucking insane and that next time someone breaks her heart, I might not be around to pick up the pieces. But I can promise one thing: if it happens, I’ll beat the shit out of the guy for hurting her. Just like I did with her ex. No one hurts Nine.

“A love story, his and mine. Ordinary, and yet extraordinary.” The shine in her bright eyes fill with hope and blind me. “One, unlike any other. You know how they say there're no two fingerprints alike in the world? Like that.”