Lust in Ecstasy: Love, Lies and Revenge
Chapter 42: Hope for the Best, Expect the Worst.

Chapter 42: Hope for the Best, Expect the Worst.

12:30pm The Big day.

From the moment I woke up until Eric came to pick me up, everything felt like a blur. Or maybe I just chose not to remember.

I remembered waking up, pretending I couldn’t hear my own heartbeat pounding in my chest when I realized the day had come. I remembered going through the motions... doing my chores, eating breakfast, and absentmindedly telling Joyce and Daniel that Eric was coming to pick me up again.

Daniel had asked where we were going. I just shrugged. "He didn’t say."

I didn’t wait for a response before heading back to my room to get ready. I sat on the edge of my bed, my leg bouncing up and down—so much that if I had been aware of it, I might have told myself to stop. But I wasn’t. I was too lost in my own head, too caught up in a nervous haze so thick it was like my body had gone on autopilot.

I remembered seeing Faith, her eyes lingering on me as I walked past her.

I told myself the only way to keep the fear from ripping me apart was to act like I didn’t care. And somehow, it worked. It worked so well that, for a while, I actually forgot what I was afraid of.

Until Eric texted.

Now, sitting in the front seat of his new car, everything came rushing back in waves so strong I almost choked on them.

Eric noticed. Without a word, he pulled the car over.

The sudden stop jolted me back to reality. I blinked, realizing my hands had tightened into fists on my lap. Eric sighed, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel before turning to me.

"You good?" His voice was calm, but I could hear the concern under it.

I exhaled slowly, forcing my hands to relax. "Yeah... yeah, I’m fine."

Eric raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying it. "You sure? ’Cause you look like you’re being driven to a slaughter house."

I swallowed, My leg was bouncing, my fingers gripping my jeans. Tsk. Like that would somehow steady me.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Look, man. I know you’re trying to act like you’re fine, but I can see it all over you. You don’t have to fake it with me."

I let out a shaky breath, leaning back against the seat. "I don’t know what you’re talking about," I muttered, even though we both knew that was bullshit.

Eric scoffed. "Right. Sure." He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. "You know, we don’t have to do this if you’re not up for it."

I turned to him, my chest tightening. "And then what?" I asked. "No. We’re doing this."

I gestured to myself, my hands slightly unsteady. "This... all of this," I said, motioning toward my jittering leg, the tension in my shoulders. "It’s just instincts kicking in." I took a breath, forcing my voice to steady. "It’s fear. And right now... there’s nothing I can do about it."

Eric didn’t respond right away. He just studied me, his eyes sharp, unreadable. Then he exhaled, shifting the car out of gear.

"Alright then," he said. "I want you to imagine the worst thing that could happen today. And I mean the absolute worst. Then, I want you to tell me you’ll be able to live with it."

"What?" I frowned, thrown off.

"I want you to picture the worst-case scenario," he repeated. "And I want you to tell me—right here, right now—that you can handle it."

"Eric, I don’t understand," I said, my confusion growing.

His fingers tapped idly against the steering wheel as he spoke, his voice calm but firm. "Look, until you’re sure you can bear the full consequences of your actions, you shouldn’t bother taking any. A lot could happen to us today." He glanced at me. "We could get arrested and thrown in jail. We could be held hostage and forced to surrender the evidence we have. Hell, we could even be killed, for all I know. But I’ve made my peace with that." He leaned back slightly, his gaze unwavering. "So tell me, have you?"

I stared at him. "You’re crazy," I muttered, because that was the only logical conclusion. Eric was insane. A dangerous kind of insane. And I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of man he’d grow into. One thing was for sure... He was going to be a pain in the ass for a lot of people.

I turned away, my mind racing through every possible worst-case scenario—like I hadn’t already been thinking about them for days.

"Is this worth it?" my thoughts whispered. "You could really end up in a bad place, you know."

And then, suddenly, I smiled. Because I realized something.

I wasn’t alone in this.

If something went wrong, if we got arrested, Eric’s dad had more than enough power to pull us out unscathed. If we were backed into a corner, Eric—this reckless, insane bastard sitting next to me—probably had a backup plan already brewing.

I knew this wasn’t me fully accepting all the risks. But it was enough. Enough to move forward. Enough to believe we weren’t walking into this blindly.

I turned back to Eric, and he caught the change in my expression. He smirked.

"Well?" he asked.

I exhaled, rolling my shoulders as if shaking off the weight of hesitation. "Yeah," I said, my voice steady this time. "I can live with it."

"You sure about this?" Eric asked, eyes still on the road.

"I already said I was," I muttered.

"Yeah, but sometimes people say things and don’t actually mean them."

I glanced at him. "And you?"

He chuckled. "Jail doesn’t scare me. Getting killed? A little inconvenient, but I’d manage."

"You’re not serious."

He shot me a look. "Do I look like I’m joking?"

That was the thing—he didn’t.

I sighed, leaning my head back against the seat. "Remind me why we’re doing this again?"

Eric shot me a look again.

"Right, you said you’d tell me when this is all over. God, it better be a really good reason." I said shaking my head.

Eric studied me for another moment, then smirked, shifting the car back into gear. "Good."

The engine hummed as we pulled back onto the road, I watched the world outside, fingers drumming against my knee. The closer we got, the harder my pulse pounded in my ears.

We drove in silence. I could feel it—the thick tension in the air, the weight of what we were about to do pressing down on us.

Then, Eric pulled into a parking lot, killing the engine.

"We’re here," he said.

I looked up. The building loomed before us, intimidatingly tall and dark against the sky.

Never thought I’d be scared of a building but here I was.