Arranged

Nessa was a walking drone, not that Rhone cared. Christmas was over and so was the concert – a concert she’d promised to be at and hadn’t shown up to. But he couldn’t really blame her for that, either. He wanted to – God knew he did – but after what he’d done to her, Rhone couldn’t really say that he had expected her to show up. He had hoped, sure, but not expected.
But something was wrong – more than usual. Nessa hadn’t been eating well and hadn’t spoken for days. She was completely like a zombie – the kind that stared at walls, not the kind that ate brains. It was bothering him and he was kind of tired of playing the bad guy so Nessa could be happy (which obviously wasn’t working for either of them). He’d sat after that concert embarrassed, disappointed, and hurt that he was alone without anyone to blame but himself. And that fucking sucked. SO it was high time he stopped playing Mr. Nice-Guy and got Nessa to notice that her best option was right in front of her.
He slammed the door open to the living room and, with determination, marched over to Nessa and stood in front of her, hands on his hips and feet spread wide. She hadn’t even flinched at the noise of the door hitting the wall and, instead, turned sad, empty eyes up to him.
His determination left him in an instant and his arms dropped. “Nessa?” he asked tentatively. He sighed and sat beside her. “What happened?”
Whatever had gone wrong must have been bad. He was betting it had something to do with Jay since he had been MIA since Christmas. And, honestly, he hadn’t seen Joshua since then, either. It had been two days already. Wednesday was rolling around and that meant school. Nessa had to get back to normal before then or people would start to take notice.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he tried.
Finally, she looked at him and he miserably watched her eyes fill.
“Woah!” he exclaimed as started bawling. “No, no, no! None of that!”
She continued to cry, incoherent noises that sounded vaguely like words breaking through the sobs. Rhone could only pick out three: “All my fault.”
Rhone looked at her miserably, unsure of what to do. It had never comforted anyone before – he had never wanted to. But this was Nessa. He had to do something.
Hesitantly, he put an arm around her shoulders. When she didn’t shake him off, seemingly absorbed in her tears, he pulled her against him.
“C-Come on, Nessa,” he tried again five minutes later. “It can’t be all that bad.”
“It is,” she contradicted. “I’ve screwed up everything. All I wanted was a normal life, and when I almost have one, something goes wrong.”
Rhone wrinkled his nose. “Shade?” he guessed. He was going to kill that bastard if that wasn’t what Joshua was doing.
“No.” She shook her head, leaning further into him. For the first time, Rhone felt as if they were husband and wife, confiding in each other. “It was me. Everything was me. It was so focused on trying to keep things simple that I never noticed how complicated it was all getting.
“Jay, he-“ She stopped, at a loss for words. “Jay was a distraction. I was so surprised to see him after everything that I didn’t know what to feel. There was so much left between us, but now that’s all over. I was hoping. . .” She laughed bitterly. “Hell, I don’t know what I was hoping for, but I never wanted to hurt him.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Now I’ve done exactly what he did to me.”
Rhone had heard the story from Jay, so he didn’t bother asking Nessa to repeat it, but the jerk kind of deserved it. Didn’t he know what protection was? It didn’t matter that the chick had lied about the pregnancy, he should know better than to get involved with a crazy bitch.
“So he left?” Rhone finally asked.
Nessa sighed. “Yes. He left.”
They were quiet for a few moments while Nessa obviously wallowed in some sort of misery that Rhone didn’t understand. He was ecstatic. He wanted to dance and sing in joy that the dick pretty-boy was history. It was one less obstacle on the road to Nessa realizing she loved him the most.
“And Shade?” he pressed. He wasn’t going to hold his breath, but, damn, he hoped he was out of the picture, too.
She pressed her lips together and Rhone watched her obviously struggle not to cry again. When she had gotten her emotions under control, she pushed away from the couch and stalked to the window, clutching her arms about her and staring out into the glaring snow.
She was silent for so long that Rhone though she wouldn’t answer, but then she said, “He ended it.”
Rhone jerked straight, his heart thumping against his chest. Could he are to hope? “What do you mean?” He licked his lips, his mouth suddenly dry.
She reeled on him, her face holding an anger he’d last seen on that staircase. That look really freaked him out. “I mean that it’s over. Done. He dumped me. Because he thought I was with you.” She made her way to the door. “So, not only have you messed up my life once, but you’ve messed it up two more times.” She clicked the lock and opened the door. “I hope you’re satisfied with the results.”
The door slammed behind her, rattling the windows and Rhone sank into the couch, stunned.
What the fuck? She had said it was her fault, so why did it sound like she was blaming him? What the hell had he done?
He ran frustrated hands through his hair, wanted to tear it out.
“Jesus!” he exclaimed. He wanted to throw something, but there was nothing handy. Instead, he satisfied himself by kicking over the table, the wood splintering as the legs gave out.
He made a frustrated, loud noise. Damn it! Every time he took one step forward, it was like he was taking ten steps back. Was he ever going to get a chance with Nessa? With the way things were going, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to anymore.



Sade couldn’t do anything for Shade. He was so upset that it was sending their twinpathy into overdrive and putting Sade on edge. Not even the fact that Joshua was around was helping. In fact, he was pretty sure Joshy was adding to the problem. The man hadn’t exactly been peaches and cream the past few days.
Sade sighed in irritation, staring into mug of hot cocoa.
Christmas had been a disaster. After shade had claimed it was over, Nessa had stiffened. She hadn’t moved or said a word when Shade had walked past her and out the front door. She had done nothing as the roar of their car engine started, either. Instead, she’d just bent her head and stood there for such a long time, Sade had been tempted to call a doctor. It wasn’t until Joshua had gone over to her that she’d moved.
”Nessa,” he said, grabbing her shoulder and spinning her to face him. “You had better have a damn good excuse for-“ He stopped when they had gotten a clear look at her face. His rough handling turned to gentle worry as he gripped her other shoulder. “What in hell happened?”
The disillusionment, pain and heartache etched into her face had been so obvious it had broken Sade’s heart. He had never seen such misery before. Something must have gone terribly wrong.
However, instead of answering Joshua’s question, she had dug into her pockets and pulled out three small, individual boxes done up in different colored wrapping paper. She placed them in Sade’s hands, pulling away from Joshua.
“These are your presents,” she handed them to him, her smile forced and her eyes tearful. “The green is Joshua’s, the red is for you, and the blue is . . .” She paused and swallowed. “It’s for Shade.” With obvious effort, she reached up and ruffled Sade’s hair. “Happy birthday. I’m sorry I was late.”
“But, Nessa, why-“ Sade started, more worried than ever. Now he knew there was a reason, and a damn good one, too.
“I got held up,” she interrupted flatly.
Joshua laid a hand on her shoulder again. “Nessa. Talk to us. We can help.”
Sade nodded. “Yeah. If we just explain, I’m sure Shade will under-“
“No,” she cut him off, shrugging off Joshua’s hand. She shook her head. “No. He’s right. I screwed up. It was my fault. I’m just-“ She rubbed a hand over her face, sighing. “I’m going home.”
“But, Nessa-“ Sade tried again.
She merely shook her head, backing towards the door. “I have to go. I don’t want to be here when he gets back.” She shot a look at Joshua. “Don’t follow me. I want to be alone.”
Sade and Joshua had shared a look, but neither of them had stopped her as she’d left.
Sade sighed again, laying his forehead on the table. What had happened? Nessa had seemed in shock and it had been days since anyone could reach her by phone or even in person. Joshua hadn’t been banned from Manor House, but he hadn’t seen Nessa, either. So he had opted to stay with Sade and Shade until Nessa decided to see him, but it was obvious he was getting antsy just waiting around. And since Shade refused to listen to both Sade and Joshua’s pleas that there was something that Nessa was hiding about Christmas, Joshy hadn’t exactly been the happiest person, either.
Sade banged his head against the table top. “This couldn’t get any worse,” he muttered.
The fridge opened and Sade looked up to see Joshua pulling out a bottle of water. “What couldn’t get worse, cutie?”
He sat down as Sade answered. “What do you think? Nessa won’t talk to us, Shade won’t listen and I’m not even sure if he wants to be friends with her anymore.”
Joshua leaned back in the chair. “You ought to know it’s not that easy to be friends after something like this happens.”
Sade sighed. “Yeah. But, Joshy, isn’t there anything we can do to help?”
“Like what?” Joshua asked. He reached out and took Sade’s hand. “Look, Sade, this isn’t for us to solve or fix. Even if we were to force them to meet, we can’t choose what they say or how they’ll act. We can only wait and hope.”
Sade blushed happily when Joshua kissed his fingers. “Are you planning something?” He gave Joshua a disbelieving look in response to his innocent look. “You are, aren’t you?”
Joshua smiled softly. “Not really. I just think it’s about time Nessa answered some questions.” He looked at the hall leading to Shade’s room with a sort of far-off determination. “And I think answers might make this house a little less cloudy.”
As Sade let that sink in, he tried to quiet the nervous somersaults his stomach had decided to take up doing as entertainment. That and he tried not to wonder what other kinds of problems this moment’s decision was going to create.



Nessa was tired. She’d been sleeping for days and going for long walks at night. Right now she was on another one of those walks. It was cold and darker than hell, but the full moon cast shadows and made it easier to see. It wasn’t like she was going to get lost, either. Not with the house lights shining like beacons or with the deep impressions in the snow from her tacks leading a path back.
She’d be damned if she was going back now, though. She wanted to get away from the light, away from that house and away from Rhone. Away from the guilt.
How could she have been so blind? So stupid? If only she had taken the time to stop and pay attention, maybe all of this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe-
Nessa stopped. But it had happened. There was no point in wondering about the “maybes” or “what ifs”. It was over and done with and now she had to deal with the consequences.
But, hell, she really didn’t want to apologize to Rhone. Even if most of the fault was her own, she detested the thought of groveling to the dickhead. But he didn’t deserve for her to have gone off on him like that yesterday. She had been confused and upset and annoyed with herself. It had sucked big time – it still did – and she was trying to sort through the odd mess that was her life. She wasn’t really sure where to begin, however. Shade more than likely wouldn’t talk to her, and it wasn’t like she was going to ask him to take her back, so what was the point in explaining what had happened?
Rhone might be an easy fix, though. The lawyers had said no divorce and refused to help, but there were ways around that. If the Blossom name could make them stay away, then it could damn well get them to help. And, after that. . . After that, what?
Nessa sighed as she came to the line of trees. Only one answer came to mind, really: After that, she would disappear.



Rhone watched Nessa disappear into the trees as he spoke into the receiver of the phone. Even though Nessa had ripped him a new asshole yesterday and pissed him off enough to kick over a table, he was sticking to his decision to get Nessa to notice him. This phone call was going to do just that. Hopefully, it would help Nessa figure things out in the process.
“Yes,” he told the worker on the other line. “That’s exactly what I want. No disturbances except for the few servants. . . No . . . Yes. Alright, good. That’s all.” He hung up.
He sighed as he leaned against the sill, watching the wood. Was love supposed to be this hard? Was there supposed to be so much pain?
He straightened and looked around his room. When had his priorities changed? When had all of this wealth seemed so useless? He had always gotten everything he had wanted, but this was taking months. The only thing he could count on was the marriage contract. There was no way she could get around that. For some unknown reason, Louis had made the lawyers stop any and all transactions possibly leading to divorce. Rhone had hated that in the beginning, but now he was silently sending a thank you to his old man. He would never tell him that to his face, but still, it gained him brownie points.
Rhone went over, grabbed his guitar, and plopped down in his beanbag chair. He strummed the strings, humming to the tune and wondering what he might be able to do. Sure, the first part of the plan was complete, but the second phase might not go so well. It all depended on Nessa’s reaction, and no one knew what that could be.
As the music calmed him, Rhone tried to convince himself that, this time, the plan was going to work. That, somehow, things would go right for him – for them. Too much had gone wrong already, so this had to go right.
Didn’t it?