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“Aye, watch your mouth,” Kohl laughed. “Anyway, the point is, Sevyn is all of those things. Which you knew. But she’s also loving, loyal, kind-hearted, and giving. She’s not perfect, and she’s damn sure never pretended to be anything other than who she is. So again, did you expect her to roll over and make things easy for you without at least trying to find a way to make herself feel good about it?”

“As much as I hate to say it, Kohl’s right,” Pardi shrugged. “Even I was thrown off by how easily she accepted it.”

“So, again. That’s supposed to make it right?”

“No, it makes her human. The same way you were human when you turned her down because you weren’t ready to stop fucking other bitches. Whether you wanted to hurt her or not, the decision was still selfish, the way hers was.”

“It’s been a long-ass battle of back and forth for you two to end up here. Are you going to spend another few years trying to figure it out or just let it go and be happy with the person you want to be happy with?”

Pardi made sense, something he seemed to be doing a lot, lately, but Dallas was at a war with his pride. It might have helped matters if Sevyn had at least attempted to reach out to him and try to fix things but she hadn’t.

There hadn’t been any communication between the two since he’d stormed out of her mom’s house and that irked him more than the entire situation. He hated that she never took accountability for anything.

Sevyn always wanted things Sevyn’s way and Dallas wasn’t bending this time. He was tired of apologizing, tired of begging, and tired of chasing her.

His feelings be damned.

“You know what,” Dallas finally said, digging into his pants pocket for his wallet. “You’re right. Ain’t no way we should be at a bar on Christmas Eve. Y’all have better shit to do.”

“Dallas,” Kohl called, only to be ignored.

Flagging down the bartender, Dallas asked, “Can I get my check?”

Sitting around drinking and thinking about Sevyn wasn’t going to be the theme of the rest of his night. He didn’t care what he had to do, Dallas was going to get her out of his mind and out of his system.

* * *

The silencein her home had never been so deafening. Sevyn was so sick with regret and disappointment in herself that she hadn’t moved in a day. She didn’t know what to do. For as far back as she could remember, she’d never seen Dallas as upset as he was.

Especially not with her. Lorren and Avery had been blowing her phone up but Sevyn didn’t want to talk. She was perfectly content wallowing in self-pity over the way things had crumbled so easily.

She’d been sailing on a high of one of the best weeks of her life, only for it to turn into a disaster. Sevyn didn’t blame Dallas for walking away from her. Had the roles been reversed, she would have done the same. Without being so mature about it.

That was her problem, she realized. One of them, anyway. She’d taken everything and made it about her. Her thoughts, her feelings, and what she wanted were the only things that mattered to her.

Dallas was an afterthought. If he’d been a thought at all.

Sevyn respected his will and dedication to making her happy, but how long could he have gone on ignoring his needs or feelings before growing to resent her?

Rolling over in her bed, Sevyn sighed deeply. Dallas had been right about one thing. Things between them shouldn’t have been so hard. Maybe they weren’t meant to be together. He could have been right on the money when he’d said they could have just been two kids who’d grown up together and mistook an entire friendship to be more than what it was.

Sevyn banished the thought almost immediately. The end of a simple childhood friendship wouldn’t have her in bed, clinging to the tiniest shred of sanity.

No. It was love. Gut-wrenching, heart-twisting love.

Turning onto her back, she stared at the ceiling, wondering what would come next. Fear of rejection kept her from reaching out to Dallas, despite how badly she wanted to hear his voice.

Part of her had been hoping that he’d come back around the way he usually did but Sevyn knew that was wishful thinking. She’d fucked up and the only way things could possibly go back to normal was for her to fix it.

But how?

Reaching for her phone, Sevyn toyed with it for a moment, weighing her options. There was a very good chance that Dallas could send her packing if she popped up on him attempting to apologize. Then both her heart and pride would take a hit within days of each other.

Was it worth that?

After fiddling with her phone for a few more minutes, the answer smacked Sevyn in the face like a brick. It was worth it.

No matter how resistant or off-putting she’d been, Dallas had never let it deter him. If she loved him half as much as she thought she did, then who was she to let it deter her?