“I just don’t think he’d be a good partner to have kids with.” Evie shrugged, not wanting to get into the fight she’d had with Alex that morning, or the fact that it felt like all they did lately was argue.
“So why are you with him?”
“Because I’m not ready to have kids.” She glanced at him, wondering why he was pushing the topic. “What does it matter?”
“I’m just curious.” He shrugged and reached out, poking his finger into her shoulder. “It sounds like you’re still holding on to some resentment from your birthday.”
“No, but that’s one of the reasons I don’t think he’d be a good partner for kids.” She figured that was as good an example as any. “He’s a little self-centred and selfish.”
“And you’re not.” Aaron nodded in understanding. “That makes sense. Why drag it out?”
“Because ninety percent of the time, he’s a great boyfriend. He tells me I’m beautiful and compliments me. He’s very caring and loving and happy when he sees me,” she explained. “It’s one of those ‘when things are good, they’re great’ situations.”
“And the ten percent of the time when things aren’t great?”
“It’s all about him. He tells me I’m beautiful and compliments me because he wants to show me off. He’s very loving and caring, but it’s because he’s pushed my boundaries and knows I’m upset.” The words came spilling out before she could stop them, and she silently cursed herself. She hadn’t meant to tell him about the boundary pushing.
“The reason I was at the office so early this morning was because we were fighting. He stopped talking to me, and instead of doing what I normally do, which is try to fix it, I walked out.” She hoped the story about the fight would be enough for him to forget about the boundaries and was relieved when Aaron tilted his head and frowned at her.
“What was the fight about?” he asked, and Evie felt he was disproportionately interested in her relationship. Shewondered why, only to realize it was probably just misery loving company.
“He wants me to go on a hike with him.” She rolled her eyes, remembering how stupid the fights had been over this stupid hike and wishing she’d never agreed to it. “I’ve been rescheduling or putting it off because I’ve been so busy, and I’m honestly just tired, but he thinks I’m doing it because I hate hiking, which, yes, I do, but I agreed to give it another try, and I intended to keep my promise. He complained so much that I got permission to tell him there was a death, and I was looking after that on top of my regular stuff. But he turned it around that I wasn’t communicating with him, then stopped talking.”
“Why are you still with this guy?” Aaron scoffed and shook his head. “He sounds like a complete twat.”
Evie laughed, privately agreeing with his assessment as she pulled into the glass place’s parking lot and parked in front of the door. “Come on, this is the last thing you need to do, and I’ll take you back to the Tower so you can sit down with Tommy.”
He followed her in, picked out what he thought Paula would like, and requested four. One for him, one for the memorial wall at the office, one for her adoptive parents, and one for her biological mom. Evie, who was looking through a pamphlet, showed him some pendants and suggested he have one made for Cecilia to mend the bridge before he closed the road. He shrugged and said he didn’t care one way or the other, but placed the order anyway.
When they returned to the Tower, they were waiting for the elevator when he suddenly hugged her.
“Thank you for doing this with me, Evie. It means a lot.”
Chapter Fifty-Three: Fractures
A few hours after she and Aaron returned to the Tower, Evie walked into her apartment and dropped onto her couch with a groan. Her head was pounding, and she rolled over, burying her face into the back of the sofa. The room darkened as HELIX recognized she wasn’t feeling well and closed the living room blinds, blocking out the late afternoon sun.
“Thanks.” The cushion muffled her voice, but the AI responded with a quiet “you’re welcome” anyway.
Evie knew why her head hurt, and the knowledge only added to the tension behind her eyes. She hadn’t heard from Alex all day, and she was not going to be the one to reach out, despite how much the silence fed her anxiety.
It was her instinct to smooth things over and steady the boat. She hated feeling like people were upset with her, and she had to keep reminding herself she hadn’t done anything wrong. She communicated clearly. It wasn’t her fault he was choosing to ignore what she told him.
She must have drifted off because the next thing she knew, HELIX was talking to her, and the sun had dipped below the city skyline. She sat up, pressing her face into her hands and rubbing her eyes.
“I’m sorry, HELIX, can you repeat that?” Her mouth felt like someone had stuffed cotton balls in it while she slept, and she stood to get a bottle of water from the fridge.
“Mr. Turner is requesting permission to come to see you.”
Evie groaned and, for one brief moment, seriously considered saying no.
“Is Tommy or Nissa home?” She had never consciously decided not to fix things with Alex before and had no idea what to expect. Thorn was away on a mission, but knowing Tommy or Nissa were close by would make her feel better.
“No, but Mr. Denton is in the dorms.”
“Okay.” Aaron being close helped settle her. “Let Alex come up, and if he starts yelling at me, ask Aaron to come to my apartment.”
Evie went to open the door for Alex, but when she did, he just stood there staring at her. Feeling her headache flare, she turned without a word and walked back to the kitchen to find her ibuprofen. She almost shut the door in his face, but wanted to get this over with.
