Tilly stared at the floor. “And afterward she stayed. She fell asleep on me. Like… actually asleep. On my chest.”
Jamie’s voice gentled instantly. “Okay. So what went wrong?”
Tilly drew a shaking breath. “This morning, she shut down. Completely.”
Erin’s arms lowered. Jamie’s face dropped.
“How?” Erin asked.
Tilly forced the words out. “She wouldn’t really look at me. She wouldn’t let me touch her, not even a brush against her arm. She kept saying we had to get back. She didn’t seem upset about the physical stuff. She just… shut her feelings off like flipping a switch.”
Jamie winced hard. “Oh, Til.”
Erin stepped closer, voice steady. “That’s fear. She opened up emotionally last night. That’s the part that scared her.”
Jamie nodded. “Savannah can flirt with half the newsroom without blinking, but the second she feels something real, shepanics. She’s like a cat that accidentally loves someone and then has to pretend she hates them.”
Tilly laughed once. Then grimaced. “It felt like she erased it. As if she decided overnight she can’t let herself want me.”
Erin shook her head. “Wanting you isn’t the problem. Being vulnerable with you is. That’s not about your gender or what you did. That’s about trust.”
Jamie nudged their shoulder. “She trusted you. It scared her sideways.”
Tilly’s voice cracked, small but real. “I don’t want her to pretend it didn’t happen.”
Jamie squeezed their knee. “She can pretend. Savannah loves pretending. But she felt it.”
Erin nodded. “And she can’t unfeel it.”
Tilly leaned back, exhaustion etched into their features. “I hate feelings.”
Jamie nodded solemnly. “Yeah. They’re terrible. You’re in the right apartment.”
Erin sipped her tea. “Chaos, panic, regret, denial. We’ve seen it all.”
Jamie elbowed her. “You’ve caused it all.”
Erin smirked. “Accurate.”
Jamie turned back to Tilly. “So. Emergency friend meeting part two: comfort food. Pizza or Chinese?”
Erin lifted a menu. “Greek is an option.”
Tilly let the tension in their shoulders fall just a little. “Pizza. Extra cheese.”
Jamie leapt up. “Perfect. Erin’s paying.”
Erin groaned. “I always pay.”
Jamie grinned. “That’s why I love you.”
Erin kissed her temple on the way to get her wallet.
Tilly exhaled, the first real breath they’d taken since Savannah closed off that morning.
The emergency friend meeting was working.
Thirty
