“I’m totally game for that plan. Oh, and honey, congratulations on your engagement.”
“Thank you, Ms. Copeland.” Blake’s cheeks turned a light shade of pink.
“I’m so glad you two found each other again. But now I’m off to run errands.” Mom gave me a wink before leaving Blake and me alone.
“She’s such a dork,” I said as I sat back down and tucked my feet underneath me, pulling my hands into the sleeves of the hoodie. Being as short as I was, sitting any other way was uncomfortable. No one liked their legs dangling in the air like that.
Besides, a monster could’ve reached out from under the couch and yanked me under.Ya never knew.
“I love your mom. She is seriously the coolest.” Blakely had been in this house enough to make herself right at home on the couch next to me.
“So, how are you? I’m sorry I’ve been so out of touch lately.”
“Oh no, you don’t. This is not about me. This is about you.” She pointed her finger at me, and I tried to hide a smile. “You already know everything about me. You helped me when I needed you, and now I’m going to do the same. Who knows if I would have talked to Jamie without your pep talk.”
“You and I both know that you giving Jamie a second chance had nothing to do with me, or anyone else for that matter. You love that man. Bottom line.”
She rolled her eyes. “Still. I was so lost when I called you. I can’t believe that was only two weeks ago.”
“And that’s what friends are for.”
“Which is exactly what I am doing now. So, spill!”
I huffed loudly. Blake wasn’t going to let it go. “Fine, let’s talk about me, then.”
She handed me the blueberry muffin, which she knew was my favorite, before saying, “Finally.”
“Okay. So. I’ve alluded to the fact that Elijah and I are a bit on the rocks. Things have been weird between us for a while now, and I’m not sure when it happened. But the more I notice things, the more I can’t unsee.”
“What exactly are you seeing?”
“He’s become extremely controlling and tries to dictate what I do and when. He also treats me like I’m beneath him and his family. He doesn’t seem to be happy anymore and is always upset about something and wants to work all the time.” I paused. “Actually, he was the reason I didn’t come for Noah’s funeral.”
Blake’s eyes bulged. “Seriously?”
“He didn’t support me driving up for it. Said I was letting him and the company down and that I’d probably be fired for missing the inspection.”
“And he wouldn’t do anything to help you?”
“No. He said he wasn’t responsible for my job.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I would have done anything to help you be here.”
I looked down at my feet. “It’s hard to explain, but I recognized deep down that Elijah was being completely unreasonable, and I didn’t deserve to be treated like that. I couldn’t find a way to open up about it without blaming myself for allowing him to do that to me.”
And it was in those moments when I’d felt at my worst.
“Geez. How long has it been this bad?”
“That’s the problem. It’s like he slowly cut away pieces of me to make me fit in a beautiful elegant box. I wanted to make him happy and I went along with it for his sake. I never realized that Elijah was gradually shutting the lid on my box. But now… now I feel as if I’ve broken out of it, and he is trying to shove me back in. I don’t want to go back in. I just want to be myself. To be happy.”
Blake sipped her coffee before speaking again. “I had no idea things were like that.”
“Of course, you didn’t. I didn’t want you or anyone else to know. I thought our problems were our business. Which is true, but once I was stuck in that mentality, I upheld the picture of a perfect relationship. Even though I knew his behavior was wrong, I couldn’t stand the idea of someone judging Elijah or me for being imperfect. All relationships have their ups and downs, and how do I know I’m not the one being unreasonable here?”
“Hmph.” Blake gave me a leveled look that told me exactly who she thought was being unreasonable. “It’s hard when outsiders can look at you and pretend they know what you are going through, when in reality they don’t have any clue.”
I took a bite of my muffin, the crumb topping breathing life into my body. “Yeah… it is.”
