Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Theodore:

Choosing between them felt impossible.

We had always been the ones to take care of Gigi, but right now, I couldn’t leave Verity alone.

Gigi had Jaguar. She had Ragnar. She had her parents.

Verity had no one here except me.

And I had promised myself I would prove to her that she meant very special to me.

Gigi went completely still.

Her eyes filled with tears, and she fell silent.

I knew my behavior had hurt her. She kept staring at my face, and the guilt was eating at me.

But I turned my attention back to Verity.

She was watching me with those beautiful, wide eyes.

The shock on her face told me I had made the right choice.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

I desperately wanted to brush her hair behind her ear, but Gigi was still in my peripheral vision.

She hadn’t left.

"You’re bleeding badly. That cut on your foot is deep." I glanced down at the blood. "Let me clean it and give you some first aid. Then I’ll get you something for the panic attack. You can take one pill and try to sleep."

I said all of it as though there were no one else in the room.

I got up and headed toward the bathroom, but as I crossed the room, I caught sight of Gigi again.

She was still watching me.

I knew there would be hell to pay in the morning.

Once she had time to process what had happened, she probably wouldn’t forgive me for this.

But Gigi was gentle. She wasn’t the kind of person who would scream or start a fight.

And Verity was innocent too.

She needed someone, and I couldn’t just leave her alone like this.

That was the problem.

Gigi was my friend.

Verity was the woman I loved.

Of course I was going to choose the woman I loved over a friend, especially when I knew Gigi had other people to take care of her.

I went into the bathroom and grabbed the first-aid kit.

When I came back out, the doorway was empty.

Gigi was gone.

I went back and sat beside Verity.

The first thing I noticed was her bag.

She had stuffed her clothes into it so badly that half of them were barely folded.

I picked everything up, put the clothes back into the closet where they belonged, and moved the bag aside.

Then I carefully lifted her injured foot onto the bed, placing a folded cloth underneath it so I wouldn’t stain the sheets.

Once both her legs were resting on the mattress, I sat near her feet and opened the first-aid kit.

"Is he always that angry?" Verity asked innocently.

At least she wasn’t angry with me.

I had made the right decision.

"No. He’s not that terrifying all the time," I replied as I gently wiped the blood from around the cut with a clean piece of gauze.

"He definitely seems like it," she said, pouting.

I smiled faintly and reached for the antiseptic.

"Let me tell you a story. Once, when we were kids, Ragnar, Jaguar, and I went swimming. There was this pool out back, and it had taken us forever to somehow get permission to use it."

I dabbed the antiseptic around the wound, slowing down whenever she flinched.

Halfway through the story, I fell quiet as the memory came back to me.

A laugh escaped me.

"What?" she asked.

"So Jaguar jumped in first, then I did, and Ragnar came in after us. We were all trying to swim, mostly just kicking and throwing our arms around in the water."

I picked up another clean pad and carefully wiped away the fresh line of blood gathering near the cut.

"Anyway, when we were done, Jaguar and I climbed out. Then we heard someone coming."

I paused, already starting to laugh.

"But Ragnar wouldn’t get out of the pool."

Verity tilted her head, clearly waiting for the rest.

"Why? Why wouldn’t he come out?" she asked sweetly.

"It was really late by then. The water looked almost black, and Ragnar was just standing there in the middle of it, refusing to move."

I shook my head, laughing again as I unfolded a fresh piece of gauze.

"Then, completely serious, he goes, ’I lost my underwear somewhere in the pool.’"

Verity burst out laughing.

Her reaction made me grin too.

"And Jaguar and I completely lost it. Ragnar was furious. Eventually, we told him, fine, we’d get back in and help him find them."

I placed the gauze gently over the cut, keeping one hand around her ankle so she wouldn’t move too suddenly.

"But he wouldn’t let us do that either."

"Why?" she asked, still smiling, like she was already on the verge of laughing again. "Why wouldn’t he let you?"

"Because he said if we went underwater, we might see him."

She laughed again, and I had to stop for a second because my own hands were shaking from trying not to laugh.

"That argument went back and forth forever. Eventually, Jaguar somehow found him an extra pair. Ragnar put them on while he was still in the water, and only then did he finally come out."

I began wrapping the bandage around Verity’s foot, careful not to pull it too tightly.

By the time I finished the story, though, some of the amusement had faded.

That memory had brought another incident back with it, one where a small mistake I had made with Gigi had caused far more damage than I ever intended.

"What happened?" Verity asked.

I looked up and gave her a small smile instead of answering.

"Ragnar is just like that. Even if something ridiculous happens to him, he won’t laugh about it. He’ll stand there looking completely serious while everyone else is losing their minds."

I secured the end of the bandage, then gently ran my fingers over it to make sure it would hold.

"That’s just who he is."

For a few seconds, we both sat there in silence.

Then we started laughing again.

I could only imagine her picturing the entire thing, especially Ragnar standing there in the middle of that pool, refusing to come out.

But in the middle of her laughter, she suddenly went quiet.

My smile faded almost immediately as I looked at her, concerned.

Then she softly said, "Thank you."