She flashed him a watery smile. “Kinks are different from trauma, even if maybe they come from the same place. Eroticised subjugation, you know?”
He didn’t know. “Is that a thing?”
“For sure. I’m into it and I know Bernie likes things, ah, intense, as well.” She smirked. “There’s a healthy way to do that stuff if she asks you to. And I can’t imagine you doing it if she didn’t ask.”
He remembered Cheryl standing by the side of the yacht. ‘God, I love it when you’re bossyyyy, Pat-trick.’
“She asked,” he admitted. “But you weren’t there…”
“That’s a damn shame.” Eden grinned. “You are different to Cheryl from other guys. She cares about you more than I’ve seen her care about anyone. Even me.”
“I don’t…”
“I’m not trying to be self-deprecating. She loves you. I think that’s why she never wanted to hook up with you. But now you have…”
“It’s over?”
“Not necessarily.” She looked over her shoulder. “I know it sounds unfeminist or whatever, but meeting Willow changed everything for me. I’m like… the right version of myself now. For Cheryl, meeting you wasn’t enough. Maybe now that she gets you can have the friendship and a physical relationship, she’ll find a way to let you in.”
“Right. Do you maybe have a timeline on that?”
“I don’t know. It might take a while.”’
He looked at his hands. “Another three years? Or fifty?”
“I don’t think so. Not if the sex was as good as the scratches on your neck imply.”
Patrick clapped a hand to his throat, his face burning.
“Can I give you some advice now?” Eden asked.
“Of course.”
“Wait. And don’t message. Messages just make her confused. She needs to work this all out in her own head.”
He’d already been mentally composing the text he’d send to Cheryl tomorrow. “You think?”
“I know. Whenever Bernie and I had a problem, I waited it out and let her come to me. And she always did.” She put a hand on his arm. “She’s got a big heart. Maybe too big. She always does right by the people she loves.”
Patrick remembered all the times Cheryl had come through for him, helping him when he was sick, talking him up when he was miserable over a bad game. “I’ll wait. As long as it takes.”
Eden frowned. “Really?”
“Yeah. There’s no one else. Just her.”
Eden looked like she was about to start crying again. She opened her mouth, then Willow’s voice floated in from the bathroom. “Sexy mama? Jup wants you to come see her bubble beard.”
Eden slid her hand from his arm. “Stay here tonight. We can get dumplings. Watch a movie.”
“Yeah, sounds good,” Patrick lied. Nothing sounded good except going to Cheryl, but he knew Eden was right. The ball was in her court. He had to wait for his wayward kitten to come back on her own. He joined the Williams-Cartwright family for dinner and watched Moana with them on the couch. Afterward, Eden and Jupiter went to bed and he and Willow sat up playing the Nintendo Switch. A couple of beers helped deescalate his hangover and soon he felt halfway human.
At one in the morning, Willow turned to him. “So, the sex… How good was it?”
“Best I’ve had.”
He laughed. “That does not surprise me. You know Cheryl and Eden had a bunch of threesomes?”
“Yeah?” Patrick briefly entertained the thought of an Eden-Cheryl sandwich, then looked over to see Willow contemplating the exact same thing. He punched him in the arm. “You’re not allowed to fuck Cheryl. Ever.”
