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“Bad?” I frown. “Why’s it bad?”
“Because it’s the part where the woman gets angry. Gets her girls around her. Decides to take control of her life.”
“What part?” I ask, confused.
“The part in romcoms. When the girlswatchromcoms.” Bennett rolls his eyes. “Don’t you know anything about women?”
“Apparently not,” Hudson murmurs. “But I don’t think this is helping.”
“Nothing can help,” I tell them. “I messed up. I lost her. I don’t deserve her and I never did.”
“Jesus Christ. Will you listen to yourself? Do you think she gives a damn about all those skeletons in your closet? Do you really think so little of her that you think she’d walk away? She’s not like that. She sees people for who they are, not what they’ve done. That’s why she spends half her time trying to save the world. She loves people. She loves you. And you sitting here like a martyr? That’s not going to win her back.”
His words stab deep in my chest. I hate how right he is. Because it’s easier to think she’ll hate me for what I’ve done than who I am. A man who can’t communicate when he has to talk about himself, his feelings, his fears.
Easier to think she hates me for the darkness. Because I can’t do anything about that.
“He’s going to fight for her, right?” Bennett asks.
“I don’t know,” Hudson says. “Does he look like he’s ready to fight?”
“No, not really.” Bennett sighs. “But if he doesn’t…”
“Then some other guy will come along and win her,” Hudson says. “And they’ll deserve her.”
His words are like a punch to the stomach. “What?” I say, leaning forward. “How the hell is that supposed to help?”
“It made you sit upright, didn’t it?” He lifts a brow. “Maybe even made you want to punch something.”
“Maybe he should,” Bennett adds. “He shouldn’t just sit there when he has a girl worth fighting for. Somebody like Eden, she deserves energy doesn’t she? I guess if he doesn’t have it in him…”
“Who says I don’t have it in me?” I ask them, annoyed at how easily I’m being manipulated. But maybe there’s a part of me that’s glad it’s this easy. That needs this.
That needs my friends, the same way I need her.
Not because I can’t live without her, but because I don’t want to. And I think I can be the man for her.
Damn, I want to try.
“What do I do?” I ask out loud. More to myself than them. I have no idea how to make things better. How to show her that I care.
How to throw myself at her feet and show her how much I love her.
“You do what she’s asked,” Hudson says softly. “For you to stop freezing her out.”
“Tell her who you are. All of you. Let her see she’s your equal,” Bennett adds. Christ, maybe having Robert De Niro as his spirit guide is having an effect.
“She’s not my equal. She’s way better than that.” The words scrape my throat, because they’re true.
Hudson and Bennett both go quiet, watching me like they’re waiting for the next excuse to fall out of my mouth.
But I’m out of excuses. I have been for a while. Either I do something, or I turn out to be the piece of shit I’ve always thought I am.
And Eden doesn’t need that. She needs someone strong. Someone as strong as she is. Stronger even.
I stand, my chest tight, my hands clenching. Because I know what I need to do. Show her the whole me. The darkness and the light.
And if she hates the darkness? Well, then she can walk away. And I love her enough to let her.
