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“Are you alright?”
Concern all but dripped from his tone and I sighed, leaning on the table. “I’m fine, like I said in the text. I didn’t want to worry you.”
I really hadn’t wanted to interrupt his work, but apparently today was one of the few times hehadn’tturned off his phone.
“I’m your boyfriend; it’s my job to worry.” He said, tone turning steely as he continued. “Since it’s an ex of mine that hurt you, I’d say I have even more reason to worry.” Then guilt trickled into his tone. “I never thought she would go after you like that, or I would have warned you how unhinged she was.”
The pain in his tone twisted my heart, and I cut him off before he could get himself worked up. “Oliver, you can’t control other people or their reactions. She’s a painful topic for you, and it makes sense that you wouldn’t want to talk about her more than absolutely necessary. You couldn’t have guessed that she’d do this.”
He heaved a sigh. “I know, butthiswas why I broke things off with her. She had violent outbursts, and they never seemed to have a real trigger. When she saw her friend forcing herself on me, she refused to hear a word I had to say and tried attacking me. I managed to get her subdued, for the most part, and I broke things off with her afterward. I should have warned you about it.”
It boiled my blood that she would hurt him and then play the victim afterward, as if she had the right to such a thing. People like her madelegitimateabuse victims harder to believe, and I bit my lip until I tasted iron.
“She never should have hurt you, physically or otherwise. I stand by that, and I refuse to let you take the blame for this. You didn’t attack me, nor did you forceherto attack me. This was all her, so let her take the responsibility that comes with that.”
My mouth pulled, a twinge of pain shooting through my face as I rubbed it absentmindedly. “I’ll keep an eye out for her from now on just in case she starts targeting me, but I really don’t want to think about her right now.”
I hated drama, and it all but poured off Diana like a fountain.
He made a low noise of agreement. “Alright, what do you want to talk about?” He asked.
“Why is your phone even on? Usually it’s off while you work. That’s why I even sent the message, because I figured you wouldn’t get it until later,” I said.
His response was delayed, hesitation all but palpable as he admitted. “I had a bad feeling today so I kept it on, just in case. I told you I have good instincts.”
“I thought you said they were mostly angled toward people?” I asked, remembering the pain that’d colored his eyes when I’d first asked if his instincts were ever wrong. Now I knew the reason behind that pain; Diana. That’d been when he was wrong.
His voice cut through the thoughts, dragging me back to the present. “They are, but sometimes I’ll get feelings about situations, or days too. A friend of mine, Ludwig, got in a car crash years ago, and I felt itchy and unsettled the whole day before it happened.”
Immediately, I straightened. “Was he okay?”
“Yeah, thankfully no injuries, but that’s when I realized my feelings were connected to things.”
A beat of silence came then, but I didn’t feel the need to fill it. This was a good quiet, the kind that felt peaceful. Oliver and I had never needed to fill that silence, and now was no different.
After a few minutes, he sighed. “I need to go back to work, but I don’t want to. If I’m being honest, the only thing I want to do is go to the restaurant and see for myself that you’re okay.”
If he’d been the one attacked at work, I’d probably be the same way. “That’s understandable, but you should be off soon, right?”
He hummed. “Yeah, this is my last break, and then I’ll be headed home.”
“We’ll see each other in a few hours then.”
Dissatisfaction welled in his tone. “I know, it just sits wrong that I’m here while you’re hurt at work.”
I couldn’t help it, I snorted. “It’s hardly even a scrape. If she didn’t have those nails of hers, I wouldn’t have that either.”
A minute passed, and then he asked. “Can you send a picture? I know you said it isn’t major, but I’m going to worry relentlessly otherwise.”
Trailing a featherlight touch over my face, I bit my lip and considered that. It didn’t look awful, but seeing it might worry him more.
When the silence stretched for another minute, he spoke again, his concern coming back with force. “Itisjust a scratch, right?”
Dang it, now he thought I was hiding something worse from him.
Giving in with a sigh, I took a picture and sent it. Barely a minute later, the response came through, and I could all but feel his worry oozing off it.
“I’m sorry you had to deal with this at all.”
