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“I’m going to kill him,” she muttered as she hugged Leigh closer to her.
“No, no it’s my fault.”
“How can you say that?!” Angel would have thrown her hands up in the air in exasperation if she hadn’t been hugging Leigh.
“Because it is. I broke up with him.”
And she broke into fresh sobs.
It took another ten minutes of cuddling, crying, and nonsensical soothing words before Leigh started gulping and hiccupping, her shaking shoulders finally slowing from the almost violent shuddering they’d been doing. She forced herself to sit up, although Angel’s arm remained around her shoulders, blowing her nose and wiping her eyes until there was a small pile of Kleenex on her lap.
“So what happened?” Angel asked, examining her friend. Leigh was not a pretty crier; her eyes and nose were swollen and pink, even her lips looked kind of swollen, and her cheeks were puffy and patchy red. “I thought last weekend went well.”
“It did but... I mean... he didn’t propose.” Leigh had already told her that, so Angel nodded. “It started bothering me and I kept thinking about what you said, about how I should talk to him about what I want instead of waiting around for him. So I mentioned over dinner that before we went away this weekend I’d thought he might propose.” She sniffed and Angel cuddled her closer again. “He got kind of irritated and told me he’s not going to propose yet, because he’s not ready.”
“Again?! That bastard.”
“Then he said I was pushing him and marriage isn’t on his timeline yet. And I said we’ve been together long enough that it should be, and it devolved into this awful fight. I was getting pretty upset and then I said maybe we needed to take a break and think about this whole timeline thing... I meant a break from the fight, but as soon as I said it, he asked if we could see other people if we went on a break... I thought I was going to strangle him.”
“You should have,” Angel muttered. Wouldn’t have been much of a loss.
Ignoring her, which was probably the best policy, Leigh went on. “I asked him if he really wanted to see other people and he said yes, and so I said I couldn’t stay in a relationship with someone who wasn’t completely sure he wanted to be with me when I already knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. It’s... not... fair... to me...”
Angel squeezed her friend, a few tears leaking from her own eyes in sympathy to ragged edges of pain in Leigh’s voice as she broke down again.
“Oh sweetheart, I’m so proud of you… that’s exactly what you should have said because it’s so very true.” Angel murmured, comforting Leigh as best she could. Sure some of what she was saying was cliché, but in this case it was all true.
Eventually, Leigh pulled herself back together, pushing back up to a sitting position.
“Sorry,” she said, looking guiltily at the water spots she’d left behind on Angel’s shirt.
“Not a problem.” Angel stroked Leigh’s hair as her friend wiped her eyes again. “What else are friends for?”
“Hopefully for letting me crash with them until I figure out where I’m going to live?” Leigh said, looking a little guilty.
“Of course, absolutely,” Angel said firmly. A thought popped up in her mind. “Ah, you’ll have to fight with Mike over who gets to sleep in my bed with me and who gets one of the couches. He gets here on Saturday.”
“Mike’s visiting?”
“Mike’s coming back to live,” Angel corrected, and explained his situation. While Leigh and Mike were friendly, they weren’t friends the way Angel and Mike were, but it was a nice safe topic which distracted Leigh and allowed her to pull herself together even more.
Angel hoped her roommates would be okay with the extra guest.
Once Leigh had gone out to her car to grab the suitcase she’d packed, Angel went down to the basement to explain the situation to the guys. To their credit, each one of them immediately pledged their support for Leigh and said she could stay there as long as she wanted.
“Is she okay?” Sam asked. “Should we be paying Michael a visit?”
“You’ve been watching too many mafia movies,” she told him.
“SAMPSON!” shouted Q and Mark at the same time, making her laugh as Sam rolled his eyes. He hated his full name.
“You gonna pull out some whoop-ass, Sampson?” Q asked, his eyes on the screen where he and Sam were currently brawling on SmashBrothers. “Cuz you could use some right now.”
“Shut it, asshole,” Sam muttered, furiously pushing buttons to go on the attack.
Deciding she could leave the guys to their own devices, Angel went back upstairs to help Leigh get settled in. She’d forgotten she’d pulled out some of the clothes she’d been thinking about wearing to Stronghold and found Leigh examining one of her corsets.
“Did I interrupt something?” Leigh asked, holding it out as Angel entered her bedroom.
