“I know.” I leaned my head back against the seat. Of course it was okay. It was everything that came after. “I just can’t—” my breath hiccuped, and by some miracle, kept my voice even. “I just can’t get my hopes up about something and then have them think I’m going to be you. Not when I reacted like that. I’m sorry.”

“Esme.” She slid across the seat and pulled me into a hug, and I let her. “I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

Despite all the ways her life made mine harder, there was no animosity between us as sisters. Eva only wanted the best for me, and she would be over the fucking moon to see me settled down and happy. It was everyone else who made it impossible when they looked at two people but only saw one. Like somehow the fact that we shared a womb and a face meant we shared everything down to preference, when we couldn’t be more different.

Even our scents were opposites.

I leaned my head on her shoulder until the limo pulled up in front of my house and studio.

“You going to be okay tonight?”

“I’ll be fine,” I said with a sigh. I was always fine. “I’m done perfuming, and I’m going to take a shower and go to bed.”

“Okay.” She squeezed my hand. “Love you, May-may.”

Stepping out of the car, I leaned back inside and smiled. “Love you, Va-va.”

I watched until the limo turned the corner before I went inside, sadly and completely alone.

Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

________

LUKE

The design in front of me wouldn’t fully resolve itself. I’d been staring at it for what felt like hours, searching for that intangible thing which made a tattoo sing. It was good I still had a week before the client needed to see it, because this wasn’t working.

With a sigh, I clicked off the tablet I was sketching on and went to the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge. It wasn’t likely the beer was going to magically fix the design, but a man could hope.

The front door burst open and then closed again. Not quite a slam, but hard enough for me to pay attention. There were heavy sounds of equipment being dropped, followed by thumping, determined footsteps. Bennett strode into the kitchen looking absolutely wild and snagged the open beer from my hand. I hadn’t even taken a sip yet.

“Why yes,” I said sarcastically, “that was for you.”

“Thanks.” He tipped the bottle back, emptying half of it in one go.

“Fucking hell, Ben.” I grabbed another beer and popped the cap off. “It was just a party. Couldn’t have been that bad. And didn’t they have alcohol there?”