His First Love Returned, So I Married His Assistant

I slid into the booth across from him and studied his shirt. White. Buttoned all the way up to his Adam's apple, like it was holding him hostage.

Then I unlocked my phone and scrolled to last Tuesday's photo. Towel. Mirror. Abs.

I looked at the shirt. I looked at the phone. I looked at the shirt again.

"Okay. Serious question." I tapped the screen. "At work you look like an auditor. After work you look like the cover of a fitness magazine. Does your boss know?"

The tips of his ears went red. Fast. He picked up his coffee and held it in front of his mouth like a shield.

"Lily."

"IronLog."

He set the cup down. "Sebastian is sick. He's been looking for you."

And just like that, my romantic coffee date turned into a status report from my ex-employer.

My stomach turned cold. The handbags. The jewelry. The diamond bracelet I'd sold to a nice lady in Philadelphia.

He knew.

I flipped my phone around and pushed it across the table until it bumped his saucer.

"Here's the deal. You keep your mouth shut, or I forward every one of these to Sebastian. With captions."

"That's not why I..."

"Nope." I held up a finger. "Today is a private meeting. Two strangers from the internet. You don't report where I live, what I wear, or what I eat. Got it?"

His jaw worked. He opened his mouth again.

I raised my eyebrows.

He shut it.

We finished our coffee in a silence so thick you could spread it on toast. He paid. I let him.

That night, I typed out a long message. Half apology, half threat. I hit send.

A little red exclamation point popped up.

**This user is not accepting messages.**

I stared at it. "He blocked me. The audit man blocked me."

---

At seven the next morning, someone knocked.

"Package!" a man called.

I padded to the door and pressed my eye to the peephole. Black. Someone had a thumb over it.

Nope.

I backed away and called the front desk. "Hi, it's 4B. There's a guy outside my door who doesn't want his face seen. Can you send someone up?"

My phone buzzed while I was on hold.

**Adrian: It's Sebastian. He finished treatment last night and signed himself out. I couldn't stop him.**

I read it twice. Then I texted back.

**So you DID unblock me. Just to warn me about your boss.**

He didn't answer.

The building guy, Marty, showed up in a cardigan and checked Sebastian's ID like he was carding a teenager. A nurse in blue scrubs stood behind them holding an IV bag on a pole.

I opened the door a crack. "You can wait in the living room. Don't touch my snacks."

Then I went back to bed and pulled the blanket over my head.

---

I came out around noon.

Sebastian sat on my lumpy sofa in a coat that probably cost more than my car. His face was the color of printer paper. A thin tube ran from the back of his hand up to the bag.

I stopped in the hallway and pinched my wrist. Hard.

"Ow." I sucked in air through my teeth. "Okay. Not a nightmare."

He didn't laugh. He didn't even blink.

"Lily," he said, low. "What were these three years to you?"

Oh. Here it comes. The bracelet.

I folded my arms. "Seasonal inventory. Stuff goes out of style. You clear the shelves."

He shot to his feet.

The tube snapped tight. The needle tore free. Three bright drops of blood hit my pale wood floor.

"Oh my God. Sit down. *Sit down.*"

"I'll get gauze," the nurse said, already heading out to the car.

I grabbed his hand and pressed my thumb over the tiny hole. His skin was ice cold. With my free hand I dialed Adrian.

"Your boss is bleeding on my floor," I hissed. "Come get him."

"Daniel's on his way up."

Sebastian's phone lay face-up on the cushion. The wallpaper glowed. That laughing teenage girl.

For the first time, I looked closer.

She was wearing a navy varsity jacket. Gold letters across the chest.

My high school. My track team.

Wait. What?

The door burst open before I could think about it.

A man in a gray hoodie and a doctor's badge stormed in carrying a medical bag. He took one look at the blood and glared at me.

"Daniel Reed. His doctor. Also his friend." He knelt and swapped my thumb for gauze. "Do you know what you've done to him? He hasn't slept. He hasn't eaten. He looks like a ghost because of you."

I stared at him. "He doesn't eat. He doesn't sleep. And somehow the bill comes to me?"

"Lily..." Sebastian started.

"No. I need air."

I marched out and slammed the door behind me.

I made it four steps down the hall in my fuzzy socks. Then I stopped.

This was *my* apartment.

I turned around and eased the door back open. Quietly.

Daniel's voice floated out. "...and you still haven't asked her about the love letter? The one she put her own name on and handed to some jock?"

My hand froze on the knob.

Junior year. An unsigned letter tucked in my locker. Beautiful. Way too beautiful for any boy I knew. I'd been lazy, and Ryan Carter had been cute. So I copied it out, signed it *Lily*, and slipped it to him.

It worked. We dated for six weeks.

I sank against the doorframe and pressed my lips together.

Sebastian turned his head. Our eyes met.

"I bought this building," he said. "This morning."

I took in the coat. The cashmere. The watch.

"Wow," I said. "You're more generous to a whole building than you ever were to me."

His jaw tightened.

"But that's not what I want to talk about." I stepped inside and shut the door. "Answer the real question. The letter."

He was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, his eyes were red around the edges.

"I was sixteen. I walked up to you at a track meet and said hi." His voice cracked. "You pointed at your throat and shook your head. Like you couldn't talk."

I remembered. I'd done that to every boy who bugged me between races.

"I learned sign language for two months," he said. "Two months. And you were never mute."

Daniel winced.

"Then I wrote you a letter. Took me three days. And I watched Ryan Carter read it out loud in the cafeteria, telling everyone *Lily* wrote it for him."

I glanced at the kitchen. Could I fit in the cabinet under the sink? Maybe if I folded myself in half.

"The necklace," he went on. "The silver one with the little star. I made it myself. You gave it to your roommate."

"She liked stars..."

"I stayed up two nights beating that game for you. Every level. And you blocked me the next day."

Each sentence landed like a brick on a growing pile. Every one of them said the same thing. *Look how heartless you are.*

I let the pile sit there. Then I asked the only thing that mattered.

"Whose kid is Noah?"

The room went silent.

Sebastian closed his eyes. "Mine."

My fingers curled into my palm.

"He was born before you and I started. I was drunk one night. Serena looked..." He swallowed. "She looked like you. I thought she was you."

"And now?"

"I brought them home so the two of you could meet. Get to know each other."

Daniel quietly reached for a throw pillow and held it over his own face.

I looked at Sebastian. Really looked. The pale skin. The red eyes. The man who had never ended a single thing in his life.

He didn't want to choose. He'd never even thought about choosing.

I tilted my head.

"So what is this, Sebastian? Do you want a relationship?" My voice came out calm. Too calm. "Or are you building a museum of girlfriends with matching faces?"

His lips parted.

And behind me, someone knocked on the door again.