Chapter Twenty-Four
St. SebastianPresent Day
Everyone always thinks that there’s two stages to love: not together and together.
Before and after.
Alone and then not alone.
There’s this idea that it’s like a lightning strike or a switch being flipped or some kind of chemical catalyst that rearranges every molecule in an instant, never to be undone.
But of course there’s another stage, another phase, a time that feels sacred in its own way.
The time between.
For two weeks after the equinox, I’m floating. My feet don’t even touch the ground, and I catch myself smiling at the smallest things. Poe’s wrinkled nose when Auden finally forces her to try Marmite. The long, possessive looks I catch Rebecca giving Delphine—and then Rebecca’s scowls when she catches me catching her. Becket’
