She turned to him with excited eyes. “How is your game coming?”
“Incredible,” he told her, and for the next few minutes, he bored her with detail after detail of the game that was unfolding into something spectacular at every level. It was like now that he was past the one thing blocking him, all the other chips were falling into place. He could practically see scenarios in his head and couldn’t work out his plans fast enough.
Best of all? He didn’t even need Levi.
Which was good, because after the meeting at Hunter’s house? The brothers had a blowout fight. Levi had told him to back off of Edie because he was taking things too far. Magnus, already furious at his brother’s laziness, fired him from The World project and told him to go fuck himself. Now, they weren’t speaking and things at the art house were more than a bit tense.
And Magnus found that he . . . didn’t care. Levi would get over it, and he could choose to work with Magnus, or he could go spend his money. Either way, Magnus was fine with it. He was tired of being held back because Levi didn’t feel like working, or Levi was fascinated by a girl. This time, Magnus was flying solo . . . and he was enjoying the hell out of it.
When they pulled up in front of the townhouse, Edie gave him a curious look. “What’s here?”
“I’ll show you,” he said, feeling a burst of excitement. He wanted to do this for Edie, wanted to see the awe on her face when she saw the apartment he’d gotten just for her. He’d deliberately held back on buying a place that was a little more ridiculous (and more his wavelength) out of respect for her feelings. In the future, when they officially moved in together, it’d be something entirely different, he told himself. Maybe that wouldn’t be so far off. Then they could just install Bianca in the Park Slope house . . . and he’d make sure they got an upscale place all the way across the city. Then Bianca could be Levi’s problem.
Edie’s brow crinkled as they walked up the four steps and Magnus produced a key for the door. He pushed it open, and then gestured. “After you.”
She tilted her head at him, curious, then walked inside. He flipped on a light switch as she did, and waited for her reaction.
The apartment was cleaned from floor to ceiling, and the walls had been recently painted. The windows leading out to the tiny back patio were open, letting sunlight stream in. One wall was an empty bookshelf, and a small nook in the back led to the kitchen and the bedroom. Edie stepped farther inside, studied the place, and looked at him.
“Are you moving?”
“Not exactly,” Magnus said, grinning. “I bought this place for you.”
Her eyes went wide. “You . . . what?”
“I want you to be closer to me. I know you can’t move in with me because the place is all wrong for you and your knee. And with Levi there, things would just be really awkward for all three of us. And I know you can’t leave your cats, but you want someplace away from Bianca. I thought this would be the perfect solution.” He gestured. “It’s one floor, central to all public transportation, has lots of cat-friendly spaces, and room for your boyfriend, who has entirely too much money to spend and doesn’t want to have to go back and forth four hours when he wants to hold you.”
A smile slowly spread across her face. She took a few steps into the apartment and ran her fingers along one of the shelves. “It’s a really great apartment,” she agreed, a wistful note in her voice. “You’ve thought of everything. I can’t even be upset about the money, because I know it’s not much to you.”
“It’s not,” he agreed, glad they weren’t going to argue about it.
“But I can’t take it.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
She gazed out one of the windows, and he heard her give a heavy sigh. “This place is so perfect.” She looked back at him, a rueful smile on her face. “You’re so perfect, too. But Bianca will have a fit.”
Bianca? Was she serious? “All the people who give a fuck about Bianca, raise your hand.” He made an exaggerated show of glancing around the empty apartment, and then looked over at Edie.
With an apologetic look at him, she raised her hand.
Magnus made an exasperated noise. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” she agreed. “I’m so sorry. I know it isn’t what you want to hear. It isn’t what I want to tell you, either. But . . . I owe Bianca. I really do. She’s been so good to me, taking care of me since I hurt my knee.”
“Forcing you to depend on her, you mean.”
Edie shook her head. “No, it’s not like that.”
“It’s exactly like that. Your relationship with your sister is as needy and codependent as mine is with Levi,” he exclaimed. “Only thing is, I’m starting to figure that out about Levi, and you’re still defending Bianca. You don’t need her. You can live somewhere where you can have free rein of the house instead of the small portion that you can manage with your bad knee. You can take public transportation instead of waiting for her to drive you somewhere. You can have your own life.”
“I know,” Edie said, and she wrung her hands, looking distressed and unhappy. “And I want that. I want this place, and I want you, but I . . . can’t yet. For the last few years, Bianca has made her entire life about me. Helping me recover. Helping me with my business. Being at my side day and night if I needed her. She would view this as an utter betrayal, and I can’t do that to her.”
“So you’re choosing your sister over me?”