“I rest my case.”
“Actually,” I say, setting down my mug, “I have an OBGYN appointment today. I’m taking an Uber, though.”
The kitchen goes deathly still. I can feel Bastian’s tension from across the room. He doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t have to. His silence says it all for him.
“I can go with you,” Yasmin offers immediately.
“Thanks, but no.” I shake my head. “I need to do this one alone.”
“Eliana—” Bastian starts.
“This is my body,” I interrupt. “Therefore, my choice.”
“At least let me drive you,” he says. “The Uber thing is?—”
“Oh, you mean that dangerous scourge that literally millions of people use every single day without incident?”
“Risky, is what I was going to say.” He ventures closer and pitches his voice in hisI’m Being Very Fucking Reasonabletone. “You don’t know who’s behind the wheel. You can’t?—”
I set my mug down hard. “Newsflash: I’ve been protecting myself my entire life. Since long before you showed up, Captain Control Freak.”
“That’s not what I—” He exhales through his nose. “I’m not saying you can’t handle yourself. I’m saying that right now, with everything that’s going on, it makes sense to be careful. That’s all. Just let me come with you. I’ll wait in the car. You won’t even know I’m there.”
“Believe me, I’ll know.”
“I just want to make sure you’re safe. Both of you. Is that really so unreasonable?”
My fingers tighten around the mug handle. I can feel everyone else in the room holding their breath, pretending to be very interested in their phones or the pattern on the tablecloth or literally anything other than this conversation.
“Reason has nothing to do with it,” I snap. “You just can’t let go. Not one second goes by that you aren’t hovering over me like a—like a goddamn attack helicopter.”
“I’m not?—”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, you are. You’ve been doing it since the day I met you. Way before then, too. Always deciding what’s best for everyone else without asking whattheyactually want.”
He falls quiet in a way that hurts me. When he speaks again, his voice is husky and hushed. “I’ve already missed so much,” he tells me quietly, so only I can hear. “Can’t you let me have this? Just this one thing?”
The ache in his voice is real. I know it is. A treacherous part of me wants to give in, if only to erase that pain for him.
But we’re not normal, we’re not a couple, and if I start letting him in now, I’ll never get him back out.
“If you really want to help,” I say, my jaw set, “then respect my boundaries. For once in your life, don’t steamroll over what I want just because you think you know better.”
Bastian doesn’t respond. I hear him step back, then away. The front door opens and closes, and then he’s gone.
With that, the dust settles, but the tension remains. Sage clears his throat awkwardly. Zeke whistles. I flex and unflex my hands again and again, alternating between feeling like a raging bitch and a righteous woman of principle.
“Hey.” Yasmin’s hand lands on my shoulder. “Come help me with something in the bathroom.”
It’s the most transparent excuse in the history of excuses, but I don’t fight it. I let her take me down the hallway, one hand trailing along the wall until we reach the bathroom door. She pulls me inside and closes it behind us.
“Alrighty. So… what the hell was that?”
“What was what?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Eliana Hunter. I’ve known you too long for that bullshit.” She pushes me to a seat on the closed toilet. “Are you actually comfortable going to this appointment alone, or are you just trying to punish him for whatever happened last night?”
My face heats. “Nothing happened last night.”
