He followed her and sat at the island, staring mutely. Now thoroughly irritated, Evie glared at him.
“Did you seriously come here to continue the silent treatment in person? Because if that’s the case, you can leave and not come back.”
A flash of panic crossed his face, and she watched realization settle over him that this wasn’t a fight he was going to win.
“No, I came to talk. I was waiting for you to start.”
“Why would I start?” She scoffed as she found the pills and shook two into her hand, wondering what kind of mental gymnastics he’d done to come to that conclusion.
“You walked out of my apartment this morning.” He folded his arms and stared at her like that alone explained why she was at fault.
“You weren’t talking to me,” she reminded him as she took both pills and washed them down with water. “Why would I stay where I was being ignored?”
He didn’t seem to have an answer for that, and his cheeks flushed. She could practically hear his brain scrambling to find something to throw back at her.
“Just admit you’ve been putting off the hike on purpose!”
Evie walked past him and sat down on the sofa, resting her head on the back and watching the shadows drift across the ceiling as he followed her into the living room.
“Do you know what I did today?” she asked softly. “I spent the day with a man whose wife was killed, driving him to the funeral home to make arrangements for her cremation and memorial.”
She looked at him and saw his face go a little pale, which sparked a sharp, guilty satisfaction.
“Do you know what I should have been doing today?”
Alex slowly shook his head, his defensive posture dropping.
“I should have been working on one of the four tech requests I’ve had in the last three days. I average two to four requests a week. Someone comes to me, tells me what they need, and I create the schematic for a prototype and send it down to tech to build.”
“I’m about ten requests behind, and to get caught up, I’m asking Tommy to work with me this weekend so we can plow through them and make sure nobody else dies. So I’m very sorry if a hike, something I’m only doing to make you happy, is not number one on my priority list right now.”
“If you’d just actually communicate these things with me…” His voice took on the faintest whine, and Evie held up her hand, stopping him cold.
“I do communicate these things with you. I’ve told you I’m overwhelmed and under a lot of stress. I got special permission to tell you what’s been going on, and you immediately turned it around and said I wasn’t communicating, then stopped talking to me.”
She was completely done. She needed him to either take accountability or leave.
“Just because you don’t know the details doesn’t make what I’m telling you any less true. I violated my non-disclosure agreement by telling you things you have no business knowing. You’ve known since we started dating that I’m not allowed to talk about my job, and as the Chief of Security Operations, you should understand that.”
His expression shifted from defensive to contrite and ashamed.
“Look, Alex, I love you. But if things you’ve known about since day one are suddenly a problem for you, then I don’t know what to tell you because it’s not going to change.”
Alex sighed and sat beside her, running his hands through his hair.
“Of course, they aren’t a problem. I’ve just been feeling like you’re distancing yourself from me. I want to spend time with you, but constantly hearing about how tired you are and that we’ll do this together soon is hard. You promised we’d do this hike, and you’ve put it off for two and a half months.”
“I understand that,” Evie said, holding on to the last threads of her temper. “But all I’ve asked for is some understanding of how difficult things are right now. When youworked nights and did all that overtime to save for your trip, did I ever complain that I only saw you for an hour every five or six days? Or when you were working toward your promotion, did I complain that we only saw each other once or twice a month? No. I was happy to see you and made the most of it. Now the shoe is on the other foot, and all I get is arguments and silent treatment.”
“I have a harder time not being with you than you have with not being with me.” He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. “I get upset when I’m looking forward to seeing you, and it gets cancelled at the last minute. Or when you ask if we can stay in and watch a movie, even though I was excited to do something active together. And I love cuddling you, but the lack of sex lately has been hard on me, too. But you’re right. I should have been more understanding and supportive. I know you don’t want to hurt me and wouldn’t do these things if you had another choice.”
He pulled her against him and kissed her temple.
“Let’s watch a movie and enjoy each other’s company tonight. I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” Evie murmured, wondering why she still felt like nothing had actually been resolved.
**********
