Page 65 of The Longest Wait

“Of course,” Sofia rushed to say.

Alex wasn’t backing down. “No.”

Dominic patted the empty seat next to him. “Ian, get comfortable. Sofia and Alex are champions at arguing.”

“And no one knows why they do it,” Lucy added bitterly.

Alex and Sofia knew why they didn’t get along. As of rightnow, it was stopping. He stood directly in front of her. “Anothersecret you love, right?”

“Don’t do this now,” she whispered with an attitude.

Alex dragged his hands through his hair. “You never want totalk about it. Ten years ago, you didn’t want to talk about. At Lucy’swedding, you didn’t want to talk about it. A month ago, you didn’twant to talk about. Are you noticing the trend here?”

“She did not want to talk about.” Dominic tried to give thesituation some humor.

“Shut up!” Sofia and Alex shouted at the same time to him. Ormaybe they yelled at each other. Verdict was still out on that one.

“I told you I wanted time and you threw a tantrum at myapartment, and then you disappear all week. Now, in front of ourfriends, you want to talk about it?”

“Yes, because this is the only way to get you to address thefucking problem here!”

“Let’s do this because Alex is an impatient asshole who needseverything done on his timeline, regardless of what someone elsewants. Here is the rundown: Ten years ago, I didn’t want to talkabout it because the night we had sex, you freaked out on meand then you disappeared. A week later, I found out you hada girlfriend.”

He reached for her, but she swatted him away.

“You wanted to this, so you’re doing to have to deal with it.”She sneered. “At Lucy’s wedding, I didn’t want to talk about itbecause it was Lucy’s wedding. Her day, not ours. I didn’t wantany drama for my best friend.”

“Shit,” someone whispered.

“When we foolishly started hooking up again, I asked for timebecause I wanted to do it right. You would’ve been my first realrelationship, Alex. I wanted to do it the right way. I didn’t want tojump into anything and have you bail again. But, as you showed methis entire time, it is always about you and when you want things

Erin Lynne

done. You never think about someone else. This is bigger than us,Alex. Even your own family tries to get through to you, to no avail.Everyone wants to be here for you, but all you do is push peopleaway. I can’t do this.”

Alex saw the tears swelling around her eyes. He never sawher like this before. All of his need to talk about what happenedbetween them crumbled. She was right, he was nothing but a selfishprick when it came to her.

“That’s not a relationship.” Sofia pushed back. She solemnlylooked at their friends. “I’m sorry you had to be part of this. It waswhat I tried to avoid the whole time.”

Sofia walked out and silence fell among the rest of them.Tess, eyes wide, scooted out of the table and Lucy followedbehind her, but not before glaring at her brother. “Of all thewomen, it had to be Sofia?”

This escalated way too quickly, and he couldn’t fix it. “Letme explain.”

“No.” She was ready to leave. “I’m going after my best friendto make sure she’s okay. You better figure out how to fix this messbecause she isn’t going anywhere.”

Once the women were gone, Jack patted him on the shoulder.“Oh, how the tables have turned.”

Dominic pretended to cut his throat with his hand. “I wouldn’tdo that or you will get yelled at like I did.”

“I think Alex is in a bigger hole with Sofia, then Jack was withLucy,” Connor added.

Oddly, it was Ian who made sense. “She seems like a greatwoman. What are you going to do to fix it?”

Fixing it was a problem that stemmed over a decade ago.

How could he fix it?

Chapter 22