“What?Why?” Evan was shocked, too. “You said you had a thing for her for six years. Did something happen?”
Matt put his focus on the game. A heat-seeking missile locked onto him, and he rolled evasively, trying to throw it off. “I’m just not a good fit for her. She works hard enough as a nurse, she doesn’t need a guy with health problems.”
“Did she actuallysaythat? Wow, she seemed so nice.” He could almost see Keith shaking his head. But he couldn’t throw Rosie under the bus like that.
“Er, uh … No, she didn’t say that.” Matt fired at a TIE fighter. “It was my decision.”
“Are you sure that’s what she wanted, Matt?”
“Trust me, it’s for the best. Who knows where I’ll end up, anyway?”
“Pretty sure if you want the assistant manager job, it’s yours. Bruce is kinda going nuts right now.” Damir’s voice came over the headset. “But it’s your life. If you don’t want her, then it’d be wrong to lead her on.”
It wasn’t that Matt didn’t want her. He wanted hertoomuch. But he wasn’t the man she deserved.
A furious knocking pounded against Rosie’s door. “Rosie! Are you in there?”
She’d been lying in bed since she got off work yesterday morning, sleeping on and off. The last four shifts had been brutal; maybe she could get an acting job after this. There had never been time to get close enough to coworkers to bond as friends, and she hadn’t spoken to her squad since the break-up. Rosie was adrift in space, and her only tether was her grandparents. Who she should probably go see while she had time off.
The knocking came again, more frantic than before. “Rosie? It’s Olivia and Mia. Open up!”
Still wearing her pajamas, and not wanting a noise complaint, Rosie pulled open the door.
Mia’s jaw dropped. “I’m sorry, were you sleeping?”
Rosie shrugged and gestured for them to come in. “Not really. I’m off for a few days.”
“You haven’t said anything in the group chat for days.”
She eyed Olivia. “Neither did you for a while.”
Olivia’s gaze sank to the floor. “About that … I’m really sorry I put you in that position. I want you to be happy, and if my brother does that then I really can’t complain.”
Rosie sank onto her blue couch. “He did.” Her lower lip quivered, and her eyes started to burn with tears. How the crap did she still have any left?
“Rosie? What happened?” Mia sat next to her on the couch and looked at Olivia. “Text the squad an SOS.” Rosie wiped the tears furiously with her hand.
“He broke up with me in the hospital.”
“My brother didwhat?” Olivia’s fingers gripped her phone as she shouted.
“He — he said he wasn’t good for me. That he would hold me back. I tried to tell him I love him, but he didn’t say it back this time.” Mia wrapped an arm around her as the tears fell freely. “I don’t understand what I did wrong.”
“I’m going up there.” Olivia had her hand on the doorknob before Rosie blinked.
“No! Don’t, please! He isn’t recovered yet.” Rosie’s brain flashed with images of Matt in the ER. Even if he’d hurt her, she never wanted him to go through that again. And she feared too much stress at this stage could put him back there.
“Olivia,” Mia said gently. “I think you’re needed here more. Kicking your brother’s ass can wait.”
Olivia looked back at her friends. “Alright.”
“Have you eaten anything? It’s nearly six.”
Rosie shook her head.
“Okay. You’re going to go get into the shower and feel human again. Olivia and I are going to order pizza. The other girls will be here soon.”
Six o’clock already? Time sure flies when you’re having fun. Or a nervous breakdown.
