“She appears to be fine.” Thorn looked up and raised his eyebrow when he saw her shaking her head frantically. “We’re having brunch at…” He trailed off as Evie added slicing motions across her neck to her head shakes. “Oh. Sorry, Tommy, she is telling me not to tell you that.”
Tommy raised his voice, and now Evie could hear him reminding Thorn that Evie didn’t employ him; he did, and to tell him where they were. Rolling her eyes, she held out her hand for the phone, and Thorn passed it over with a smirk before returning his attention to his food.
Evie put the phone to her ear and sighed as she heard Tommy threaten to fire Thorn if he didn’t tell him exactly where they were immediately.
“Tommy. You need to stop.”
“Evie!” The relief in his voice was so evident that she closed her eyes for a moment. “Please. Come back to the Tower so we can talk this out.”
“I’ll be home when I feel like it,” she told him firmly. “Right now, I’m fixing things with Thorn. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to talk to you, and since I’m sure Alex is there with you, you can pass this along to him, too.”
“Why does Thorn get things worked out first?” His voice was slightly whiny, and Evie narrowed her eyes.
“Because Thorn sentthreemessages apologizing and asking to talk. You and Alex sent so many over the last four days that my phone froze when I turned it back on this morning.” She took a sip of her orange juice, deadpan.
“What were we supposed to do? You weren’t answering!” She could hear the anger building in his voice and rolled her eyes at Thorn, who was looking more and more amused as he listened to Tommy yell at her.
“I was at a retreat where technology wasn’t allowed.” She explained it simply, and it shut him up immediately. “But since I asked for space and neither one of you could give it to me, you can wait to talk to me.”
She didn’t wait for a response. She pressed the end call button and passed Thorn his phone back.
“Your phonefroze?” Thorn tucked his phone into his pocket, and Evie pulled hers out of her purse, tossing it on the table to show him the frozen screen.
“I can’t even reset it,” she grumbled.
Chapter Forty-Nine: The Last Gifts
After a hug from Thorn that healed most of the hurt and anger she had been feeling for the last few months, Evie left the restaurant and went to meet Fred at his office, arriving just before one o’clock and letting his receptionist know she was there for her appointment.
Taking a seat, she picked up a magazine and leafed through it. She’d treated the yoga and meditation retreat as a way to reset her brain and figure out her thoughts on what had happened at her birthday party. She was mostly disappointed in Tommy, but she also knew how hard it was to go against Alex when he was excited and pushy about something. He had a way of talking you into things or convincing you he was right, even when you were sure he wasn’t.
She was more exasperated by Alex’s antics. He’d done a lot of work in therapy, and things had been mostly improving in their relationship. Besides his actions at Tommy’s birthday party, which he’d apologized for the next morning, she had to admit he had been handling her bitchy moods and short temper over the last few months shockingly well.
Even the things that annoyed her, wanting her to dress up and go to clubs with him so he could show her off, insisting she meet his friends and spend time with them, came from a goodplace. He wanted people to know she was his girlfriend and was proud of it, and he wanted his friends to know her and like her.
The problem was that he seemed to think her aversions to those things were rooted in insecurity and social anxiety, which wasn’t the case. She hated clubs because they were crowded, loud, and smelly, and she was the poster child for introversion. Social situations were fun until they weren’t, and she preferred a few close friends to dozens of acquaintances she only called friends because they followed each other on social media and hung out with once or twice. Alex had thousands of followers across his social media channels, and if he was asked, they were all his close, personal friends.
Evie was pretty sure Alex had taken advantage of Tommy’s generosity when it came to her and used it to boost his social standing within the company. Given how close they’d become, Evie was lowkey dreading pointing it out to Tommy, although she was fairly certain he’d already figured it out and would be more cautious going forward.
She wasn’t waiting very long when Fred came out to get her. “Evie.” He held his hands out to her and squeezed gently when she stood up and took them, a lock of snow-white hair falling over his forehead. “It’s so good to see you.”
“Fred, how are you?” Evie smiled at the pink-faced man. “I thought you were retiring?” When they’d met regarding her mother’s estate, he’d mentioned that he’d finally decided to retire completely.
“I have, but as one of the founding partners of the firm, they’re letting me keep my office.” He turned and led her back to his office. “And since this is the last thing the firm needed to handle for yours and Tommy’s parents, I felt I should be the one to do it.” He shut the door behind them and gestured to the table, where a teapot and two delicate bone-china teacups satnext to two envelopes: a large brown legal one and a smaller, slightly yellowed white one. “I already have a special tea that I broke out specifically to celebrate your birthday and our final meeting in an official capacity, all ready to go.” He waved a playful finger at her. “Minnie and I still expect you to attend our Easter and Christmas parties every year.”
Evie was touched, but not overly surprised. Fred was not the type of person to walk away from something he deemed unfinished. “Thank you, Fred.” She smiled at him softly as she took a seat. “I appreciate it.”
A sudden lump rose in her throat, and she cleared it as she sat down, feeling like it was the end of something special.
“So, what kind of tea do we have?” She could smell the faint, delicate hints of sweet florals rising from the mug.
“Anji Bai Cha. It’s only harvested for a few weeks each spring, and very little ever leaves China. I’ve been saving it for the right occasion.” He smiled at her and walked over to his desk, picking up a small gift bag. “And I have some for you to take home. With the instructions on how to brew it properly as well.”
Evie felt a rush of affection for him and took the bag from him with the kind of reverence she knew he would appreciate. “I don’t know what to say… thank you so much, Fred.”
“Knowing you will appreciate and enjoy it as much as I do is all the thanks I need.” He sat across from her and nodded at the cup. “Go ahead and try it.”
Evie took a sip and closed her eyes, enjoying the sweet flavour. “Fred, you’re going to bankrupt me if you keep introducing me to these expensive teas.”
