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The burning in her throat got worse, but she managed to whisper. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem, Allie. He made his choice. Now I just have to learn to live with it.”
“Fuck that.”
She jerked back. “What?”
“If you’re done with him, that’s fine. I know you were kind of cagey about living with him in the first place.” Allie narrowed her eyes. “But if you’re retreating because you’re scared of getting hurt or rejected... Fuck that, Becka. Sometimes you have to be the one to take the lead and fight for what you want.” She held up her hand. “Not today. Not even tomorrow. But when the smoke clears and you can think again, you need to decide what you want. If that’s to keep going without him, then fine. If what you want is Aaron, then you need to fight for him.”
“Not today,” she said.
“Not today,” Allie agreed. She came around the table and gave her another hug. “Roman’s going to be working late, so why don’t we order in and watch a movie? Something mindless and no pressure.”
“That sounds good.” Her voice was thick with unshed tears. “What did I do to deserve such a great best friend?”
“Takes one to know one.” Allie tugged her to her feet, grabbed the plate of cookies and nudged her out of the kitchen and into the living room. “Besides, I seem to remember someone dragging me to a tropical island paradise not too long ago, and look how that turned out.”
She’d met the love of her life there.
Becka managed a smile. “Someone should make that someone more cookies.”
“On it!”
She settled into the couch and grabbed a throw blanket to wrap around her. While she waited for Allie, she replayed her friend’s words through her head.
Fight for him.
The very thought was laughable. How could she fight a losing battle? Aaron had made his choice. Not only had he left, but he’d stayed gone and iced her out. She couldn’t fight if there was no one there to fight with.
Becka swallowed hard. It was too soon to think about it. She could barely draw a breath without pain lancing her chest, and all she wanted to do was curl up with this plate of cookies under a blanket and cry for the next twelve hours. After that?
After that, she’d figure out what she was going to do.
Aaron stared at his computer screen, the letters blurring together the same way they had for the last thirty-odd hours. He couldn’t focus, too distracted by replaying his fight with Becka over and over again. Her outright refusal to talk about the future and willingness to stick her head in the sand when it came to every single future subject still made him see red. But beneath the surface-level anger was a fear he didn’t know how to deal with.
She didn’t want him.
Or, rather, she wanted to cling to her walls and keep him at a distance more than she wanted to actually be with him.
A knock on his office door brought his head up. Aaron minimized the screen and sat back. “Yeah?”
Cameron walked in and dropped into the chair on the other side of his desk. “Think it’s about time we had a talk.”
“Did we lose another client?” He couldn’t even work up the energy to be pissed about it. Becka’s solution for bringing his sister in to work as a junior consultant was still hanging in the wind. He had been too twisted up inside over Becka to worry about work, which was ironic, because he’d been at the office since their fight.
His partner laced his fingers behind his head and stared hard at him. “Doesn’t sound like you’d care if we did.”
He didn’t in that moment, but he would. Aaron straightened in his seat and tried to focus. “I can get them back, whoever they were.”
“Probably, but there’s no crisis to deal with.” Cameron raised a single eyebrow. “Except the one I’m looking at right now. What the fuck is going on with you and your woman? You’re walking around here like a zombie, and judging from the state of the couch over there, you slept here last night.”
He glanced at the couch, guilt flaring. The thought of going back to his penthouse and fighting with Becka more, of having her layer rejection upon rejection over him had been...too much. Cowardly didn’t begin to cover camping out here for the night, but he wasn’t ready to be done and he hadn’t figured out a plan to keep it from happening. He would figure it out if he could just think. “You have a point. Get to it.”
“My point is that you’re fucking it up. I don’t do relationships and even I can see that.” Cameron shook his head. “She called earlier and sounded just as messed up as you do. Go home. Fix your shit. Don’t come back to the office until you have it taken care of.”
