Page 141 of Suite 7

“What happened?”

“Everything got complicated. When they were together, Sidney couldn’t come over without it being about Kane. Everything was about him or them or whatever they were arguing about that week.” Each word lands clean and precise. “When they broke up, it got worse. She was devastated. Couldn’t separate me from him. Couldn’t look at me without thinking about him.”

“That’s awful.”

“We tried to stay friends. Really tried. But it never went back to how it was before.” Sloane’s jaw tightens. “Too much damage. Eventually we stopped talking. And I lost my best friend.”

The silence is suffocating.

“I was furious with Kane for a long time. He knew how much Sidney meant to me and he did it anyway. Didn’t stop to think that when things went wrong, and they always do, I’d be the one left holding the pieces.” She looks at me directly. Her eyes clear and certain. “That whole thing taught me something I’ve never forgotten. The people you love shouldn’t date each other. It never ends well. Someone always gets hurt.”

I can’t breathe.

“So yeah.” She forces a smile. Reaches over and squeezes my hand. “I’ll take the Sinclair-Beckett Smackdown any day. At least when you two are fighting, I still have both of you.”

My phone buzzes.

Gerald: How’s it going?

“Gerald?” Sloane asks.

I nod. Can’t speak.

“Go ahead and answer. I don’t want to keep you.”

“No.” I put the phone face-down. “You’re not keeping me.”

We talk for another half hour. Easier conversation. Work gossip. Weekend plans. Safe topics. But Sloane’s voice runs underneath all of it: Someone always gets hurt. At least I still have both of you.

When I leave, she pulls me into a long hug at the door.

“Love you, weirdo.”

“Love you too.” I hold on a second too long.

“Now go.” She laughs softly. “Text him back. You’ve been heroically ignoring your phone.”

“Call me if you need anything. Day or night.”

“I will,” she says with a genuine smile.

I close the door behind me.

Stand in her hallway, back against the wall, breathing hard.

She told me. She looked me in the eye and handed me the exact blueprint of how this will destroy her, and I sat there lying, and now I’m standing in her hallway knowing that every single day we wait is another day I’m doing to her what Sidney did.

One more day she trusts me while I don’t deserve it.

I make it to my car before the tears start.

Gerald: How did it go?

I stare at the screen. Then I type.

Me: Not good.

Three dots appear immediately.