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“I’ll do it.”
There’s another pause. “You don’t have to see him if you don’t want to, Willow.”
“I’m not scared of him,” I say instead ofI miss him. No I fucking don’t. I miss the thrill of him. I want him to fight me, I want him to beg. I want to see him, I want to feel the way I usedto feel when I was around him. I want to make him crawl for my forgiveness, and I want him to fuck all the regret out of me so that I can finally move on from him.
“Dinner tomorrow night?” Sophie asks tentatively. “Somewhere public and civilised?”
“Text me the address.”
“I’ll send a cab.”
Sophie hangs up, and I let my arm dangle down over the edge of the bathtub, phone dropping from my listless fingers. My heart is beating fast, the inside of my mind is very dark and very loud. A warning bell rings loud, clangingmistake, mistake, mistake. I close my eyes and sink into my bath, submerging myself in the water where I stay until there’s no breath left in my lungs.
54
Zero-Sum
Luca
Living with his neckunder Sophie Sutton’s boot really suits Evan Knight.
Just like Iakov, Evan has grown since we left Spearcrest. Not just in height and breadth but in general. He seems calm and composed in a way he never was in high school, the ostentatious athletic confidence of his youth replaced by a sort of winning amiability.
He arrives at the restaurant wearing a soft green woollen jumper and black slacks, a gold chain around his neck making the tan of his skin appear more golden still. He looks healthy, wholesome, content—I could heave just looking at him.
His arm is wrapped around Sophie’s waist like it belongs there, and she fits perfectly at his side in her grey dress, the green of her eyeshadow matching the green of his jumper.
“Hey,” Evan says when he walks up to the table. He pulls a chair out for Sophie like a true gentleman, and she sits with a prim nod in my direction.
“Hello, Sophie—Evan. You’re looking well.” I gesture in the direction of Evan’s chest. “All those push-ups seem to be paying off.”
There’s a glitter in Evan’s eyes, but not anger.
“Wish I could say the same of you, man. You look like a weightlifting session or two might do you good.”
So he knows how to bite back without using his fists now. Must have learned that from Sophie because the last time I pushed Evan was in Spearcrest, and he beat me up so badly I couldn’t breathe through my nose for several weeks afterwards.
“Some of us have better things to do than work on our glamour muscles,” I say with my most courteous smile.
Evan raises an eyebrow. “Yes, I heard. Blackmail and extortion must be time-consuming pursuits.”
“Let’s keep things civil, gentlemen,” Sophie says with the weary authority of a schoolteacher. “You two used to be friends, remember?”
“We were never really friends,” Evan says with a scornful look.
“You were my first friend, actually.” I smile at him. “And am I not the reason you two ended up together? I consider myself something of a godfather to your relationship.”
I say it only to irk Evan, but he throws his head back in a laugh. Sophie chose the restaurant well: dark luxury, wealthy clientele, busy while still being fairly discrete. Our table is in a secluded corner by a window overlooking the city; nobody looks up at Evan’s burst of laughter.
“If you’re angling for a future wedding invitation, Luca, you can fuck right off,” Evan says through his laughter.
“As if you’lleverconvince her to marry you.” I turn to smirk at Sophie. “She knows she’s far too good for you.”
“You must be projecting,” Evan replies, “because last time I checkedyou’rethe one who had to force your girlfriend to be with you by making her sign a contract only tostilllose her. I may have messed up in the past, but never quite this bad.”
Oh, he’sdefinitelylearned from Sophie. She’s taught him well—then again, she was always good at teaching Evan. I suppose if she could get his tiny brain to wrap itself around Shakespeare, then there’s nothing she couldn’t teach him.
I open my mouth to compliment Sophie on how well she’s got him trained but the words never leave my mouth.
