She still couldn’t believe that she was going to move across the country, but at the same time, she was so excited.
Trihn called for a cab to take her to LaGuardia Airport. With her luggage, a cab would be way easier than dealing with the subway.
Nearly an hour later, the cab driver was unloading her bags in front of the terminal. She paid him and watched him drive away.
This was real. It was really happening.
She wheeled her luggage inside and printed off her boarding pass. Her phone chimed.
Already through security! Easy, peasy.
Trihn laughed at the message from Cassidy.
A knot formed in her throat, and she tried to hold back the tears. No matter how right the decision felt, she was still leaving her home behind and without even a proper good-bye.
As she walked toward security, she said her own farewell to her family. She knew they would visit, and she would be back for the holidays, but it wouldn’t be the same.
“Trihn!”
Trihn whipped around in confusion as her name was yelled from across the terminal. What the hell?
And there was Lydia, dashing across the room like a madwoman. She stopped in front of Trihn and rested her hands on her knees, breathing heavily.
“What are you doing here, Lydia?” Trihn asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Dad…told us…in the car,” Lydia said.
“And what? You made him drive you here, hoping to catch me?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. What are you doing here?”
“You can’t leave! Las Vegas, Trihn? What the hell is that?” Lydia asked, catching her breath.
“I can leave. In fact, I already have my ticket and my bags packed, and I’m leaving now.”
“You can’t do this because of me,” Lydia said.
“Why is everything always about you, Lydia? I’m doing this for me. I’m doing this because I was given a great opportunity, and I can study fashion anywhere. I don’t need to be here in the city.”
“But we were supposed to live together.”
“You made your choice about that,” Trihn said. “I’m making my choice. This is my choice.”
“You’re overreacting about this whole thing, and you’re going to regret it.”
“No,” Trihn said, “you will.”
“He didn’t even love you,” Lydia said harshly.
Trihn cringed. No, she knew that. He hadn’t loved her. That was fine. She could move on…eventually. “Well, he doesn’t love you either.”
“Yes, he does,” Lydia said. Her voice was indignant.
“Did he tell you that we slept together?” Trihn finally admitted.
She hated bringing it up, but Lydia had to know. She had to know everything even if it was utterly humiliating to Trihn.
“Well, I figured as much.”
“At the beach house,” Trihn clarified.
“What?” Lydia asked in surprise.
“Yep. Your precious boyfriend, the one who claims to love you, slept with me when he knew that we were related and after he knew you two were ‘serious,’” Trihn said, putting air quotes around the last word. “He doesn’t love you. He’s just using you like he uses everyone else.”
“You slept with him in the Hamptons?”
Trihn paled and nodded. To her greatest regret and shame, she’d done it..
“So…it wasn’t just him. My own sister was in on it.” Lydia’s hands shook. “When?”
“Lydia—”
“When?” she demanded.
“The night of the Petersons’ party.”
Lydia covered her mouth. “We had sex the next morning.”
“I know.” She swallowed hard. “I heard it.”
“Where?”
“Why are we doing this?” Trihn asked. “You don’t need all the details. It happened. It was a mistake. I’m sorry that we did it, but you have to know now that Preston is a dirty scumbag. He’s not right for you. He’s not right for anyone!”
“Where?” Lydia repeated crossly.
Trihn sighed and huffed, “On the pool deck.”
“How could you do this to me?” Lydia asked. Tears welled in her eyes, and she looked like someone had kicked her puppy.
“I didn’t mean to do anything to you, Lydia. It’s Preston. He’s the manipulator. Can’t you see that?” Trihn reached for Lydia’s hands and held them tight together.
Lydia wrenched out of her grasp. “I see all right. I see fine now. You want him for yourself. That’s what this whole thing is about.”
“What?” Trihn asked, dumbfounded. “I do not want to be with Preston.”
“You think he’s the manipulator and he’s the bad person, but he’s not the only one, Trihn. You are too. You don’t care about me,” she said, taking a step away from her sister.
“I do care! Of course I care!” Trihn said.
“If you cared, then why didn’t you tell me when you first knew I was dating Preston? Why did you wait several days? How could you fuck him behind my back? I was at the party, waiting for him to return, and you had sex with him.” Lydia looked at her like she didn’t even know her own sister.
Trihn couldn’t explain. “I loved him,” she whispered.
But it was the wrong thing to say.
“Of course you did,” Lydia said sarcastically. “That’s the reason you slept with him that night…because you loved him. Are you sure it wasn’t because you wanted something that was mine, just like you always have?”
Trihn’s mouth dropped open. “I didn’t.”
“Save it for someone who will believe you.” Lydia wiped a tear from her eye. “You know I was coming here to tell you to come home. I was going to tell you that if it meant that much to you…I wouldn’t work things out with Preston. I like him—a lot,” she said, her eyes going wide, “a lot more than anyone else I’ve dated. Maybe I love him. But I would have ended it because I love my sister that much. Now…I think maybe you should get on that plane.”
“Lydia, you can’t be serious.”
“I am serious.”
Trihn stared at her sister in shock. “I made a mistake. I slept with a guy who I thought I loved and who I’d dated seriously all summer. My first real boyfriend. I was—I am heartbroken. I went to tell you what happened, Lydia, and your response went from breakup to make up in a few short hours. You didn’t care about my feelings. You don’t care about how I’m feeling right now.”
Trihn crossed her arms over her chest and glanced away from her sister. “And then you chose him over me without hesitating. So, maybe you’re right. Maybe I should get on that plane. Because I know what is waiting for me if I stay,” she said, turning to boldly stare at her sister, “and it’s not so welcoming.”
“I told you that I didn’t think it had to be a choice. You’re the one who chose,” Lydia said.
“Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that. What did you expect me to do? After what happened at the beach house, there was no going back, not with the kind of person Preston is. I mean, what kind of guy leaves his girlfriend who is perfectly willing to have sex with him to seek out her drunk sister in the middle of the night?” Trihn raised her eyebrows in question.
When Lydia didn’t have an immediate answer, Trihn nodded her head. “That’s what I thought.” She picked up her suitcase off the ground where she had left it and headed for security.
“So, you’re just going to leave?” Lydia cried.
Trihn turned back to her sister and shrugged. “You left first.”
As she walked into the line and handed her boarding pass to the person at security, a sad smile hit her face. She knew she was moving in the right direction even if she felt like she was in a free fall. Her plans were uncertain. Her potential career choices might be going up in flames. Her life was a total mess.
But she couldn’t be happy here.
“Final destination, Las Vegas.” The woman smiled at her. “Business or pleasure?”
Trihn smiled back. “Both.”