“When I started dating her, I told her from the start that I could not spend the night in the same bed as her. She was welcome to spend the night at my place, but she needed to sleep in the spare room. I told her I would stay with her until she fell asleep, but that I needed to sleep alone.” He stared down at the table as he spoke. “She said she was okay with that, and she seemed to be at first, but as time went on, it began bothering her.”
The waitress brought their meals, but Evie found her appetite was gone and just watched him quietly. She knew he had violent nightmares and couldn’t control his movements in his sleep; it was one of the reasons he gave her six years before when he explained why he couldn’t date her.
“Then around the beginning of February, we got lunch together, and she saw us.”
Evie’s eyes narrowed, wondering how Jolene had seen them together. She was pretty sure she knew what day he was talking about; it was the last time they’d spent any significant amount of time together, and they’d gotten lunch at her favourite bakery, which had a small coffee shop that served freshsandwiches in it. There was no way Thorn wouldn’t have seen her if she’d been there.
“She saw how affectionate I am with you, and it made her very insecure, because I am admittedly not that loving with her.” He looked up at Evie, and she could see he was silently pleading for her to understand. “I told her my relationship with you was different, that I see you as my baby sister, and that I tend to treat you like you’re much younger than you are.”
“Between refusing to sleep in the same bed as her and my affectionate relationship with you, plus the fact that I am often away for weeks at a time, she began demanding more and more of my time, and if I insisted on spending time with you, she would cry. Not burst into tears with dramatics, just sit quietly sniffling and wiping tears away while I was getting ready to leave. I would feel so guilty, I would cancel my plans with you to make her happy again.”
“So she was manipulating you.” Evie wrinkled her nose, her dislike of his girlfriend growing with each word.
“I do not think she was doing it consciously, at least not at first.” Thorn sighed, looking faintly ashamed of himself. “I did not think you would mind too much. You have Alex, and I figured you would just spend the extra time with him.”
“Then one day I woke up and realized you had stopped reaching out to me. I was angry at first, but then I went through our messages and saw just how often I ignored you or responded hours or days or even weeks later.”
This time, he did reach out, but he didn’t take her hand; he just rested his on the table, palm up and open, a silent invitation that he left for her to decide what to do with.
“I became aware that you were avoiding me at work, leaving the room when I came in, bouncing my tech designrequests to Tommy instead of doing them yourself, and I felt a weird mixture of deep sadness and relief.”
Evie felt her breath catch in her throat and reached for her purse, not wanting to hear more, but Thorn was too fast for her and grabbed her hand. “Let me finish, please.” His hold was gentle, and she knew that if she insisted on leaving, he would let her go without protest. “It is not for the reasons you think.”
Swallowing, she relaxed and nodded jerkily for him to continue.
“I was sad for me, but my relief was for you. I thought you had given up on me completely. That what I was doing was no longer hurting you, because you had moved on from our friendship and replaced me with Cole and Lana. After that, I tried to focus on my relationship with Jolene. It was only when I told Tommy I didn’t think I could make it to your birthday party and he said that it was my decision, but by not going, I was risking losing you forever.”
“I couldn’t let that happen, so I told Jolene I was going to your party.” He brushed his thumb over her knuckles and raised her hand to his lips, pressing it against them. “She was not supposed to come,” he murmured, his voice muffled against her skin. “She showed up at the Tower as I was leaving, and instead of engaging in a fight, I let her.”
“You avoided me at every turn, but Tommy made me think this was my chance to fix things, and I didn’t understand why you weren’t letting me. I did not realize just how angry and hurt you were until you told me not to call you Mališa.”
“After speaking with Cole, Tommy, and Alex, I realized how badly I had handled everything, how much I had excused my actions and tried to convince myself I had made the right choices and moves.” He kissed the back of her hand and loweredit. “I gave Jolene an ultimatum, which I am aware is not healthy, but it was needed. Either she accepted my relationship with you, accepted that my love for you is not sexual or romantic, or we ended things immediately.”
“I can’t imagine that went over very well,” Evie murmured, picking up her fork and beginning to eat, relief flooding through her that he had finally stood up for them and their friendship, even if it had taken far too long in her opinion.
“No, it did not.” Thorn chuckled. “She tried crying, screaming, and demanding. But I held firm, just repeating that either she accepted things or she could leave. I gave the ultimatum, so I left the decision to her.”
“And?” Evie looked at him, both hoping that she had left and that she had accepted things, not wanting Thorn to lose the first relationship he’d had in close to ten years because of her.
“She asked for time to think.” He shrugged. “I have made my peace with the idea of her leaving, and if she decides to stay, she may not like who I am going forward.”
Evie let out a soft giggle but linked her fingers through his and squeezed lightly. “As long as you know you don’t have to stay with her if that’s not what you want.”
“I cannot say one way or another if it is what I want.” He leaned back and smiled at her. “I enjoyed our dynamic for the most part, but I realized I was so afraid of losing her that I lost myself.”
He raised her hand and kissed her fingertips before letting her go and picking up his fork to start eating. “And you know you do not have to stay with Alex after that disaster of a birthday party on Friday night, right?”
Evie ran her hand over her head, smoothing her hair back. “God, it was really terrible, wasn’t it?” She was a littlesurprised at how quickly they’d slipped back into their regular conversation, like the previous five months hadn’t happened, but very happy about it.
“He means well,” she allowed as Thorn chuckled. “But Nissa said he sometimes behaves like a boy who never got told no enough, and I think she’s right. He just has this view that if it’s whathewants, it must be whatIwant too. His apology texts are full of ‘he’s sorry, but’ and then some reason about why he didn’t realize something. Like, ‘I’m sorry I got you red velvet cake, but I got them mixed up and thought you hated strawberry shortcake.’”
“Sometimes explanations after an apology are needed. Sometimes, you just have to take accountability and not give an excuse,” Thorn murmured, pulling out his phone as it rang. “Sorry, it is Tommy,” he explained as he answered it and brought the phone to his ear.
She was half-listening to his side of the conversation but mainly concentrating on her food, trying to eat it before the hollandaise sauce congealed too much and became inedible, when Thorn said something that made her stare at him in panic.
“She is here with me.” He was looking at his plate, using his fork to cut his sausages, completely unaware of her panic.
“Of course she is safe!” Thorn sounded incredibly insulted, and for a brief moment, Evie had to smile at his indignant response. “She is with me!”
