STEPHANIE

It's been more than three months since that night with Leo, and I haven't heard from him since. I don't know why I even hoped that what happened between us would mean anything to him, yet he is one of the most famous bachelors in the United States.

That newspaper article with Leo and my pictures has finally started to be forgotten, but I believe that it will never completely happen. My superiors offered me various dream offers every day, thinking that I was in a relationship with Leo and hoping for some benefit, while the others simply gave me looks full of hatred and envy. Yet none of them knew the story behind it all and had their own conclusions.

Probably because of that scandal we didn't even hear from each other anymore, because he probably didn't want to be brought into contact with someone like me, and what's wrong with me? I have become nervous and impatient with anyone who tries to ask me a question about him. I always say I am not interested in him, and secretly during the night I search all the news about him, but his pictures from the nightlife with famous models do not bring me peace.

I watched the girls who were in his arms, and as much as it was wrong, I wished I was in their place. I know I'm wrong, but there was something in that night we spent together that made me believe he wasn't like that, and maybe I was just trying to idealize him.

I should have listened to Nicole, but no, I had to go head over heels through the wall as always. I fell in love with his deep green eyes and that warm smile, and now I no longer know how I should function without them. He could be everything to me, and I am to him just one of many.

I became uninterested in my surroundings, and only cared about the patients, but after my shift, I would become cold to everyone. Nicole tried to talk to me a couple of times, but I would shake her off saying I was fine, even though I wasn't really. I didn't want to admit to her how right she was that morning when she told me he was the type of man who would take advantage of me and dismiss me right away.

I am a person who believes in goodness and always sees only the best in people, which is why I am usually hurt in the end. I try to be guided by that "forgive, but don't forget", although somehow I always just forgive. My sister has been trying to convince me otherwise all her life, but I have never listened to her so stubbornly and I would always end up broken because of it.

At the moment, I was trying to sneak into the apartment unnoticed after the extended shift, but evidently I didn't succeed. Nicole simply has to hear every noise.

"Stephanie?" I heard her voice from the living room.

"I've arrived, I'm tired and just want to fall asleep," I said, walking down the hall.

"Dinner is on your table, you have to eat something."

I heard the concern in her voice, since she understood everything, but it still gave me time and space to figure out for myself what I should do next.

"I'm tired, Nicole, we'll talk in the morning," I said, but she stood in front of me, preventing me from passing.

"Of course you're chronically tired after spending nights crying in your room, trying to hide it all from me, and doing double shifts during the day. I've given you enough time, but now I'm tired of looking at you being broken like that," she crossed her arms over her chest and she only did that when she was angry.

"I have nothing to talk about," I didn't want to break in front of her.

"Are you trying to lie to me or yourself?" She asked me coldly.

I know my sister and I definitely know when she's had enough of something. I saw in her eyes a determination that I had not seen for a long time, but still, there was that strong sisterly love in them.

"You deserve someone who will love and respect you, the one to whom you will be the only one; and that Anders could never give it to you..." She took a short break and approached me, "By chance, because of work, I met men like him, they see women as trophies for which they will fight only until they win them, and after that, they will simply abandon you and move on to another. It is better to leave the spoiled man, they will never know what it means not to have something and toil to achieve what they want. For them, life from beginning to end is filled only with money, but not with love. "

"But Nicole, he didn't use me, he protected me. I don't even want to think about what Alex would have done to me if Leo hadn't followed me..."

I could feel tears starting to flow down my cheeks, even though I wasn't aware that I was crying. Then an unknown man protected me and made it possible for me to feel loved and safe after a long time. That's probably why I fell in love with him so much.

That was never the case with Alex, I was with him exclusively because of my blindness to his appearance, and with that, similar pasts connected us. Somehow I thought that for him I could be what my older sister was to me. I believed that he would change and that we would then be one of those couples from fairy tales, but I deserved it with my excessive optimism.

"I can't deny that I am infinitely grateful to him for that, but now is the time to continue. Forget it, because you never need to be someone else's choice," she drew me into her arms.

I felt so safe and loved in her arms. This kind of love took me back to my childhood, when we were both carefree, when my sister was just a cheerful teenager, not a person who had to take on all the burden of my upbringing and finances. I missed this sisterly side of hers, full of love and attention, which she replaced with criticism and nagging. Although I couldn't blame her for that, because unlike her, I always had my crazy bugs that she had to control.

When she moved away from me, she wiped away my tears and smiled at me, letting me know that everything would be fine.

"Do you have to go?" I asked her hopefully because I wanted her by my side.

She wore a white shirt and tight black pants, which meant she had to go to her clinic. I tried to be maximally dedicated to my residency, but I will never be able to catch up with it. Sometimes she would spend twenty hours at the polyclinic only to get up the next day and go to work again with a smile, ready to dedicate herself completely to the patients.

"No, I can skip the paperwork tonight, it's certainly nothing urgent," she smiled at me again.

"Really?" I looked at her with hope in my eyes.

"I don't want to upset your schedule and it's so crowded..."

"Stephanie, I can miss work for one night."

This time I pulled her into my arms, happy because we will both be able to forget about the jobs and worries we both have, at least for one night.

"Thank you!" I exclaimed childishly, and she laughed out loud at this.

"Go and take a shower now, I'm as hungry as you are, don't make me wait longer than necessary," she sent me off with a smile.

I don't believe that one evening with Nicole will be able to heal all my wounds, but at least I will get a chance to spend time with my sister.

I tried to be fast, but I just couldn't do it. I opened my closet looking for something comfortable, and my attention was immediately drawn to Leo's neatly folded tracksuit in which I had returned that morning. Even though it had been washed, it still smelled of him.

I longed to take his in my arms and feel his alluring scent once more, but I couldn't afford something like that if I wanted to forget him. I took my plush tracksuit and put it on, ready to completely forget about him at least tonight. I picked up my hair in a loose bun because I will definitely have to wash it tonight.

"For God's sake, Stephanie..." Nicole laughed out loud when she saw me, and I didn't understand the reason.

"What?" I looked at her confused.

"Where did you just buy those unicorn-shaped home slippers?" She laughed again.

I looked down at my home slippers that I bought a couple of days ago. I took the last ones in the store, and I liked them so much that I didn't even look at the price. They reminded me of our carefree childhood and I just had to have them.

"What do you have against my slippers?"

"You will definitely never grow up...", she waved her hand, "Who would say you are twenty-four years old?"

The bell on the front door interrupted our conversation and she asked me to open it, and I listened to her. I didn't know we were expecting someone tonight...

To my great surprise, a pizza delivery man was waiting for me with a huge box in his hands. The moment I wanted to tell him that he had the wrong address, my sister appeared next to me and handed him the money, thanking him kindly before she took the box from him.

"Since when do we eat pizza?" I looked at her in astonishment when we were left alone.

Nicole was a strict proponent of a healthy diet, and her job made it even more rigorous about it. For her, everything was simply unhealthy.

"What about all those harmful fats and sugars that, according to you, destroy the heart, brain, bones, teeth and what not?", I looked at her questioningly.

I don't remember the last time we ate fast food together, in fact, I don't believe that my sister eats it at all. Nicole would rather get up an hour earlier to prepare meals for herself to take to work than to buy something unhealthy; while due to my residency, I practically lived on fast food, if I could eat at all during the shift.

"Stephanie, don't overdo it," she shot me a look, "I'm going to ignore it all tonight because of you, but only tonight."

"So today I can eat like tomorrow doesn't exist," I laughed, and she took the pizza to the living room, ignoring my comment.

When we entered, I had something to see, various snacks and sweets were neatly arranged on a table in front of the corner set. At the moment, I was convinced that all this was a wonderful dream from which I would wake up soon, this simply did not look like my sister.

"Do we even have snacks in the apartment?"

"Just because I pretend I don't know you have a supply of sweets hidden behind basic groceries in the kitchen, doesn't mean I'm stupid and naive," she explained briefly, handing me a sliceof pizza.

There's no way she found them all, so I agreed with Magda to hide them behind the flour she never uses...

"Why do I suspect all this will cost me dearly?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she smiled innocently at me.

"Is that the dentist in you gone?"

"Stop nagging and choose a movie to watch," she said, sitting among the multitude of scattered pillows.

However, I decided to listen to her and I sat next to her with a smile, I will have enough time to take care of it later. I played the first action movie I found, then settled down next to Nicole and put my head on her shoulder.

I didn't pay too much attention to the movie we were watching, because I enjoyed her presence the most, which made me overjoyed. We only have each other in this world, and I wished it was always like this. Nicole and I were smiling and relaxed without the insignificant quarrels we always had.

"Thank you for this," I thanked her quietly.

"Everything for my little Stephanie," she laughed, then kissed me on the forehead like she did when we were little.

"You'll always come first for me, remember that."

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