King curled up on his side of the bed and tried to will himself to sleep. It wasn’t just the uncomfortableness of clinging to the side of the bed that kept him awake—it was her. Knowing Effie was right behind him, and the past couple of days with her, it brought back all those old feelings.

What the hell is it about her that makes me so hard?

He’d spend the majority of the past day trying to hide his excitement from her, and it hadn’t been easy. When that little card game in front of the fire got out of control, it was like he couldn’t stop himself.

King couldn’t remember ever being that straightforward and honest with anyone, himself included. Fortunately, Effie had brushed aside the flirtations like they didn’t impact her at all. Maybe they didn’t.

When he looked at her now, years after their breakup, he still saw a traitor. After all, what had she expected? That they’d stay together while he moved across the country for college?

I’m doing both of us a favor, he reminded himself.

Back in high school, technically, he’d only had her once. But it was a night he’d never forget. While they dated, the passion had been undeniable, but he was older and Effie had been a virgin.

For months, they did “everything but,” and there were times he wished they hadn’t pushed the envelope so hard. It might have been easier to forget her if they hadn’t danced around the flame for so long.

King had been with countless women since Effie, but none of their memories clung as tightly as hers. He could still remember their one real night together like it had just happened.

Effie had just turned eighteen and it was his senior prom. She still had another year of high school left, and although she’d been poking around for hints of what was to come, King didn’t have the nerve to tell her it was over just yet.

He never wanted to go to prom, but the glint in Effie’s eyes when she talked about limos and dresses made him give in easily. The dance itself was a blur of streamers, balloons, and awkward poses for the camera crews. However, it was the sneaking away to the family cabin—this family cabin—that had replayed in his mind for the past few years.

King remembered their shared nervousness as they tiptoed inside, afraid that maybe Thorne had taken his own date to the cabin. However, it was all theirs. King had stoked the flames while Effie struggled to find a casual-looking pose on the couch in that tulle princess skirt. His prom king crown perched on her head, he watched her chew at her lip out of the corner of his eye as the flames grew brighter.

He remembered the desperate kisses on the couch and the way she squealed when he picked her up with ease and carried her into the master bedroom. It was the same master bedroom where she slept now.

King could still remember the catch in her breath when he entered her. He couldn’t get over how tight and wet she was. It took all his willpower to go slowly, ease her into the rhythm, and not spill himself inside her instantly.

It wasn’t just the mindblowing sex that he missed. It was all of it, the entirety of their short years together. Mostly, he remembered it fondly, although the memories of her mom and “Yaya” were another story.

Her grandmother was senile and seemed innocent enough, but right below her mom’s surface was a manipulative kind of fury he’d rarely seen before.

And that’s saying something considering my family, he thought.

Yet being here with her stirred up small details he thought he’d tucked away for good. Like how she sang old Supremes songs in the shower. Effie’s flirtatious rendition of “Baby Love” mixed with the aroma of her rose shampoo in the evening was enough to put him over the edge.

King had stood outside that bathroom door and considered for about a good five minutes bursting in there and taking her right in the shower. He could almost taste how good it would be, but managed to stop himself.

There was no way in hell he was going to take second place to Thorne. And there was no way he could forget how easily she turned down his ultimatum.

For the entire second half of his senior year, he knew exactly how everything would happen. They would have his prom, then his graduation, and in between commencement and his big family dinner he’d ask her to go with him. She was eighteen, and she could finish her senior year anywhere. King hadn’t prepared himself for anything beyond a yes.

He’d been at the wheel of his cherry 1967 Mustang, en route to his family home, when he couldn’t hold it in any longer. “So, I’ve been thinking…” he’d started.

Effie looked over at him with a grin. “Yeah?”

“I mean, I know we haven’t really talked about it, about us, with me moving to California for college and all.” He took her hand, and she looked down at their clasped fingers. As always, his hand engulfed hers. “But why don’t you come with me?”

“What do you mean?”

He pulled into the massive driveway. “I mean, come with me. You can finish your senior year there.”

“I… you know I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

She stared at their clasped hands while tears pricked at her eyes. “I just can’t.”

“Of course you can. You’re eighteen, it would be easy—”

“I can’t, King!” she cried out. That opened the floodgates and tears streamed down her cheeks. “Can’t we just… I don’t know—”

“I won’t do the long distance thing, Effie,” he said with a shake of his head. “I watched what it did to my parents—”

“We’re not your parents.”

“Just say you’ll come with me. What’s the big deal?”

“I… I can’t,” she said.

He heard the finality in her words and felt the hot pricks of tears at the corner of his eyes. It felt like his heart dropped into his stomach. Never did he think she’d refuse.

He didn’t know how either of them made it through that family dinner. There were so many people and distractions it kept both of them busy. King didn’t even have a chance to talk to Effie afterward. He’d been pulled into a conversation with a group of aunts and uncles, and the next thing he knew she was gone.

“Where’s Effie?” he’d asked his mother.

“I think she had a headache. Thorne drove her home,” his mom said, tipsy before dark on vintage wine.

From that point onward, he never heard her name without it being intertwined with Thorne’s.

It wasn’t immediate, of course.

His stubbornness kept him from reaching out to her, and as far as he knew she just walked away cold on graduation day. Two months later, right before he left for Los Angeles, his mom handed him a glass of wine as the two of them sat down for lunch in the courtyard.

“What’s this about Thorne and Effie dating?” she’d asked. It was the first he’d heard of it.

King flipped onto his back and clenched his fists.

Don’t you dare fucking get attached to her again, he warned himself. Who cares if she’s more gorgeous than ever? She’s also a fucking terror.

It had taken him years to get over her. Now, it seemed like all he’d done was push away those attachments. They’d been lurking right below the surface this whole time.

He held his breath as Effie rolled towards him.

“You awake?” she whispered.

“Yeah.”

“Do you… ever wonder what our lives would be like if I’d left with you back then?”

Was she a fucking mind reader?

“No,” he said brusquely.

“Really?”

“No,” he said with a sigh. “Not really.”

“I never got a chance to tell you this, but I wish I would have gone.”

Too little, too late. “That’s easy to say now.”

“I know. But I just wanted to tell you.”

“So why didn’t you, then?”

“You know why.”

“No, I don’t. You never said anything except, ‘I can’t’.”

“It was my family. Is my family,” she said. “I mean, you had to have known that. Did you think I just didn’t want to?”

“I don’t know what I thought, or think,” he said as he stared up at the cathedral ceiling lit by the full moon. It was easier, talking like this in the dark. He didn’t have to look into those probing eyes. “All I knew is that I was so certain you’d say yes, and when you didn’t… I didn’t know what to do. I thought the future was set.”

“So did I,” she whispered.

“Your mom treated you like shit, Effie,” he said. “Maybe that’s not true anymore, but—”

“It is.”

He listened to her steady breathing. It was the first time she’d ever admitted it.

“But somebody had to look out for Yaya. It might have been easy for you to walk away and forget your family, King, but I don’t have the means to just forget mine.”

“Right,” he said with a mean chuckle.

The silence between them was palpable. This isn’t what he wanted. After all these years, talking about graduation day, it wasn’t how he imagined.

“You know what, how about we just forget for a few days?” he asked. “Just until the snow clears up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. Shit, I don’t know what I’m saying.” He shook his head at the soaring ceiling.

“Do you mean, like, you and I…”

“No! Jesus, Effie, no. I don’t know what I was trying to say, forget it.”

He felt her eyes on him, exploring his face in the dark. When she rolled away from him and faced the soaring window, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Way to go, you fucking idiot.