I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 221

Daisy was rather annoyed with her boyfriend and determined to prove him wrong but sadly his prediction proved correct. She grew too frustrated with her constant failure to keep going and gave up after five days of no success managing to introduce a third ball.

How had he known? This sort of thing happened surprisingly often too. He always seemed to know either what she liked, what she disliked, or how she was going to react to certain situations. Sometimes it could be a bit eerie. It was as if he had known her for a very long time but they had met earlier this year.

Daisy was certain she would have remembered meeting a guy who looked like him before then. He kind of stood out.

There were a lot of things that didn’t add up about Leo. She did her best to ignore them, hoping he would tell her when he was ready, but she wondered if that day would ever come more and more as time went on.

He loved her—that was undeniable—but that was the only thing she knew for certain aside from minor details like food preferences. Most of those were due to her own observations rather than him telling her. He would eat anything he was given but when he picked food on his own it tended to be rather plain.

The only condiments he liked were jams, jellies, or preserves. He had told her all about the differences between the three the first time they made them together.

Aside from that, he preferred his food bland. He rarely dipped his fries in ketchup and when he made himself sandwiches he didn’t use mayonnaise or mustard. He made them with nothing more than cheese, vegetables, and occasionally meat.

Leo loved baked goods but wasn’t a huge fan of candy. He would eat it if it was offered to him but never sought it out on his own. His favorite baked goods were rather odd choices as well. Apple tarts and pumpkin pasties. Were those a bigger deal overseas than they were here? He had lived all over the place though he never specified exactly where.

He was very close-lipped about his past but she couldn’t blame him for it too much. So was she.

Daisy wished she understood him better. She was going to have to eventually if they really did get married someday like he wanted to.

That was strange to think about. With how often her mom got divorced or just plain dated around she hadn’t put much stock into long-term relationships. It wasn’t something she had valued having for herself.

Every boyfriend she ever had came onto her first and she agreed to go along with it without getting truly invested until Leo. He had still been interested first but aside from that her relationship with him was as different as could be from the others.

He loved her so much that it was impossible not to love him back. His sincerity had worn her down on top of how much she enjoyed his company. And it was his specifically. She wouldn’t have rolled over that like for just anyone. Especially someone with as many problems as him.

Daisy had sworn off complicated people (and people in generally, really) but now she was seriously considering marrying one someday. That was an unexpected turn of events!

It was a very long way off though. He had a lot of healing to do and so did she. She wasn’t about to marry someone without knowing for a fact that they were capable of working things out.

She didn’t want to get divorced like her mom. All of her divorces had really messed her up.

And if they had kids she didn’t want them to deal with the uncertainty and instability of being split between two households. If she dared to have children at all, it would only be if she was positive she would be able to give them a better life than the one she had.

What had Leo’s family life been like before he lost everyone? The few times he talked about them he seemed equal parts grieved and nostalgic.

He must have really loved them. That made her think that his home life had been happy before it was destroyed. He probably knew what a happy family looked like more than she did. At least any potential children of theirs would have that going for them.

Daisy had never wanted kids because she didn’t think she would be any better at parenting than her own mother had been and was terrified of screwing up but it seemed so important to Leo. Of course it would. He wanted to replace what he had lost. He thought of families as something positive.

He cared about doing things that were important to her to the point of working himself into the ground. She was going to have to try to do that for him someday even if she was petrified by the very thought.

At least she had plenty of time to get used to the idea. They were still seeing if they could even be compatible as a couple long-term.

Kids were out of the question for the next several years at minimum. If they were still together at that point and his PTSD wasn’t so crippling, they could talk about it then. Bringing children into the world under such uncertain circumstances was incredibly irresponsible.

They were uncertain not only because of his PTSD but because he wouldn’t tell her things. If he couldn’t trust her, things weren’t going to work out no matter how much he loved her.

Leo hadn’t told her anything more about Juliet Gallagher despite his negative reactions to the movie at the end of the summer. If she was truly an ex-girlfriend, he was going to have to talk about her at some point. Open communication about exes was important in a relationship.

Daisy didn’t have any problems talking about hers. They hadn’t mattered to her so they didn’t hurt to talk about. Clearly that wasn’t the case with Juliet.

She had no idea what had gone down between the two of them but having someone who had literally seen his family get murdered in front of him claim that she ruined his life was pretty serious. She had half a mind to track the woman down herself and chew her out, especially when she walked by a bookstore one day and saw a sign talking about preordering Throne of Fire, the prequel to Down in Flames that was about Rukelion Blaze’s backstory.

On one hand, she was furious at the woman’s audacity to publish another book after agreeing to settle financially out of court. On the other, she was worried about Leo’s reaction if he knew about this.

Daisy didn’t want to be the one to bring it up. She knew how much he hated reminders of the book or Juliet in general. He got a wild look in his eyes and ended up digging his nails into himself every time it happened. She would rather not say anything in the hope it all blew over without him finding out.

Of course she wouldn’t get that lucky. They were out to dinner one Friday night to celebrate him getting a perfect score on a test when they happened to pass a different bookstore than the one she had purposely been trying to avoid.

Leo stopped in front of the window and stared at the poster with an expression of utmost revulsion and loathing on his face. A moment later blood dribbled out of his clenched fists.

“Leo, your hands!” Daisy exclaimed.

He let go immediately and looked down at them in vague surprise. “Oh.”

She pulled a pack of tissues out of her purse and began dabbing at them as she scolded him. “You really need to stop doing that. Come on, I think I saw a pharmacy around the block. Let’s go get a first aid kit to clean you up.”

Leo let her gently drag him by the wrist though he still seemed to be in a furious daze. He said nothing as she bought the miniature first aid kit, disinfected the puncture marks, and put bandages on them.

Daisy’s heart clenched seeing him like this. He was keeping her out again when something was upsetting him.

“Can you tell me what you’re feeling right now?” she asked him softly.

His reply was immediate. “No.”

“Why can’t you tell me?”

“Because you really don’t want to know, Daisy. Just drop it, will you?”

“How am I supposed to drop it when you’re so upset you’re hurting yourself over it?” Daisy cried. “Why won’t you ever tell me what’s going on with you? I can’t help you if you don’t know!”

“You can’t help with this anyway,” Leo said dismissively.

“Why not? I know it might be awkward to talk about a heartbreak of that magnitude with your current girlfriend but—”

“What?! What heartbreak are you talking about?”

There was genuine bafflement under his anger. Had he truly not been in love with Juliet? Then what on earth had happened between them that she would do something so terrible?

“You weren’t in love with her then? I thought she used you as her villain because the two of you had a bad breakup or something,” Daisy confessed.