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So I do. I let it all go, embarrassed as I am. I don’t sugarcoat it because these are my best friends.
“Oh sweetie,” Ava says. “I wish you’d come to me last night.”
“I wasn’t thinking straight. I panicked and thought I needed to be here at the station. I need to explain everything to Donald. Face to face.”
“And have you?” Lauren asks.
“He’s not here yet,” I tell them. “And Michael won’t let me come to the meeting he’s scheduled for ten this morning.”
“Ugh he’s a rat bastard. You want me to put a hit on him?” Lauren asks. She sounds vaguely serious.
“No, I just want to be able to plead my case.”
“Have you heard from Liam?” Ava asks.
“I spoke to him a few hours ago. He was angry.” I bite my lip. “I shouldn’t have walked out on him either.”
“No you shouldn’t,” Ava says. “But you were upset. Did you talk to him about Marie?”
“Who’s Marie?” Lauren asks.
I let out a lungful of air. “Liam’s dead fiancée.”
“What?” she shouts.
“I’m as surprised as you are,” I say softly. “Ava, did you know about her?”
“No. Apparently they don’t really talk about her. Liam moved on and that was that. But I know now. Myles spilled the beans when I threatened to chop his balls off.”
“What did he tell you?” I ask her.
“Don’t you think you should let Liam explain?” Ava asks softly. “It’s not really my place to tell you.”
She’s right. But it hurts my heart to think about Liam having to tell me this. Not just because it’s something he’s hidden from me, but because I hate that it must have hurt him so badly.
Enough to make him swear off relationships. To become this happy guy on the surface but underneath he must have been in so much pain.
I love him. And yet there’s a side of him he’s hidden from me. That hurts, too.
“He’s a good guy,” Lauren says. “He obviously adores you.”
“He does,” Ava agrees. “He was in pieces when you left last night.”
Guilt washes over me. I need to talk to him. To apologize. To explain the panic I had when I saw where I sent that email. The knowledge that Michael would use it to screw me over.
The fact that I was afraid of losing him. So I ran.
“I need to go,” I say softly, because it’s getting hard to breathe. “There’s so much to do.”
“Of course,” Ava says. “Call us once that meeting is over and you know the results. We’re here for you, honey.”
“And if you need me I can be there in ten minutes,” Lauren tells me.
“You have a bakery to run,” I remind her.
“Bakery shmakery. You’re my friend, you come first. Always.”
I’m so lucky to have them. “Thank you,” I whisper, because if I say anymore I might cry.
