The Blank Canvas (Apartment #2) Read Online Free

Maggie. Please! Not like this.”
    Maggie debated for a moment before finally ending the call. “Okay, fine. But this isn’t over, and I make no promises about not talking to him.”
    “Duly noted. Just please let me deal with this my own way. I’m already better than I was yesterday, and I won’t be able to put him out of my mind if you are talking to him right in front of me. Besides, I don’t want him to think I went running to his family and tattled on him.”
    “Alright, but you need some girl time. You need to be able to vent or cry or whatever girly shit you feel like doing, and we can’t do that here. We’re hanging out tonight, whether you like it or not.”
    And that was the beginning of Operation: Cheer Up Lily.
    Maggie and Emma spent the next weekend helping her decorate her new apartment, giving her a few pointers about curtains and knickknacks but otherwise allowing Lily to truly make it her own space for the first time in her life (aside from a veto that forbade the Flight of the Conchords posters from going up in the living room). They helped her find a good deal on a little loveseat and dining set, and the shitty little place had actually become damn near cozy.
    After that, they made sure that one or both of them called her every day, keeping her occupied and laughing on the phone. It didn’t stop the memories from coming back as soon as Lily hung up and tried to go to sleep, but she found that they were becoming less and less painful to remember. Nothing would change the fact that she missed him terribly, but it comforted her to know that one day she might be able to think of their time together with nothing but fondness.
    The girls had whined and begged Lily for weeks, finally ganging up on her in a three-way Skype chat until she agreed to come to Chicago for the weekend. They spent all of Saturday dragging her around from store to store, forcing her to try on one new outfit after the next, as if she was their own personal My Size Barbie. When she had finally had enough and vowed to happily vomit on the next thing they handed her, they grudgingly relented and dragged her back to Maggie’s penthouse for margarita game night.
    Now, only two rounds of
Trivial Pursuit
and three pitchers later, Emma did what Maggie made her promise not to do for the entire weekend: she brought up “the situation” and “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.”
    “Oh shit!” she swore to herself, looking at Lily apologetically. “Is it okay that I asked how you’re doing? I know I’m not supposed to mention anything about the situation, but I just had to make sure that you were feeling better about… you know,
him
.”
    Lily simply chuckled and shrugged. “Emma, he’s your brother, not Voldemort! Don’t think that you can’t ever talk about him.”
    “Well, I just didn’t want you to think I was being insensitive.”
    At that moment Maggie came back in the room with a full pitcher, shaking her head. “Dammit, Emma! You did it already, didn’t you?”
    “But she just said I could!” Emma whined before grabbing her glass and draining what was left, eager for a refill.
    “Of course she did, you dolt! She’s being nice! I told you not to make her uncomfortable,” Maggie scolded as she sat back down on the carpet, crossing her legs Indian style and scooting up to the coffee table.
    “Guys!” Lily interrupted, holding up her hands in front of them before they could get into it even further. When they were quiet, she continued. “I really don’t mind. He’s part of your family, and I’m a big girl. If you want to talk about your brother, there’s no reason you should stop on my account.”
    “Yeah, but it’s not like we ever used to talk about him that often before,” Maggie explained. “We hadn’t seen him for so long that I’d nearly forgotten all about him until that bitch left.”
    “Maggie!” Emma gasped.
    “Oh, don’t ‘Maggie’ me. You know damn well it’s the truth. There is no reason we