“Juniper—” Lue started, determined to find another way to needle Shanley.


    Juniper looked up, her gaze cool and sharp, silencing her instantly. Lue leaned back in her chair, wisely deciding to shut up. The table finally fell quiet. For the rest of the meal, Shanley attended to Juniper''s every need, proving he knew all her preferences and dislikes intimately.


    Lue watched them, a thoughtful expression on her face. Juniper had always been aloof, treating everyone with a cool detachment, a trait that had only intensified after her grandpa''s death. But now, with Shanley, she saw a genuine happiness and contentment on Juniper''s face that she hadn''t seen in years. It was clear he treated her exceptionally well.


    With that realization, Lue''s prejudice against him began to soften. He was handsome, his heightplemented Juniper''s perfectly, and most importantly... he was rich. He checked all the boxes.


    As the meal wound down, Jimmie finally broke the silence. "Mr. Langley, how did you and Juniper meet?” He couldn''t quite picture his sister getting along with someone so annoyingly cheeky.


    "Fighting, of course,” Lue said, setting down her fork and swirling the wine in her ss. "About ten years ago, Juniper was ying the hero..."


    "And she saved you?" Melvin interjected, eager for a little payback. "I never would have guessed you were so weak back then."


    "Of course not," Lue retorted, the motion of her hand freezing. A sh of anger crossed her face. “She was ying the hero, alright, but she mistook me for a street mugger. She chased me down and, without a word, kicked me so hard she broke several of my ribs."


    Lue had been out for a stroll when she saw a thief snatch a wallet. She had chased him down and retrieved it, only to turn around and be met with Juniper''s size-six sneaker. Juniper had only been eight or nine at the time, but that one kick had sent her flying. It was humiliating!


    A brief silence fell over the table after Lue finished her story.


    "Well, I did get you healed, didn''t I?" Juniper mumbled through a mouthful of juice. "And I apologized, too.”


    “Sure,” Lue said, taking arge gulp of water. "After that, we started training at the same dojo and slept under the same roof for ten years."


    Jimmie and Melvin''s eyes widened, and they both shot a nervous nce at Shanley. Slept under the same roof for ten years. That was incredibly close. How could Shanley possibly be okay with that?


    Shanley, who had been peeling an orange, identally squeezed too hard, crushing the fruit into a pulpy mess. He clenched his jaw, forcing himself to stay calm. It was This was all part of Juniper''s past, her history. e has a past right? As long as Juniper was his now, nothing else mattered. It was


    fine. It was fine. It was... fine.


    He picked up another orange, and with a sickening squelch, crushed it as well. On second thought, would it be possible to just kill Lue? The sight of him was making his chest tighten.


    "Right," Juniper nodded, her eyes, twinkling with mischief. "Our master used to say, The sky is our roof and the earth is our bed. Anyone who trained at the dojo was considered to be sleeping under the same roof.”


    Shanley, Jimmie, and Melvin all stared at her. So that''s what she meant? They weren''t lovers, just training partners?


    The crushing weight on Shanley''s chest lifted, and a slow smile spread across his face. He had lost two nights of sleep for nothing.


    "So..." Lue''s yful tone vanished, reced by a serious one as she looked directly at Shanley. “You should know that winning her over is a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of luck."