There was a knock at the door and G poked her head in. “Umm...Jared and I are going to go out for a few drinks so the two of you can talk. I’ll text you when I’m on my way home.”

I nodded my head and she shut the door.

“Gabrielle, can you please calm the fuck down and hear me out. There’s more going on here than you know about.”

I stormed past him, opened the door, and walked into the living room. “Don’t you dare, Simon.”

“You can yell at me all you like, but I won’t yell back. I’m going to sit here on your couch until you calm down. You can call me names, scream in my face, do whatever you want, but I will not fight back. That’s not my style. Once you’ve gotten your anger for me out of your system, then we can talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. You just can’t come back after ignoring me for a week and think that I’m okay. I sent you a text message on the day of your grandfather’s funeral and you ignored me.”

“It was a rough day.”

“Of course it was, and I wanted to be there for you. To comfort you as any friend would.”

“What part of ‘I wanted to be alone’ did you not understand? I didn’t want to be comforted.”

I was finally beginning to calm down, since I was the only one doing all the yelling. It wasn’t getting me anywhere, so I just needed to stop.

“Okay. I understand that,” I said in a calm voice. “But all you had to do was tell me that you were okay. That was all I wanted. I’ve been ignored my whole life, Simon. I spent six years being ignored by a man that supposedly loved me. I don’t want to be ignored anymore. We’re friends and friends don’t ignore each other.” I was losing my strength and I could feel myself slipping.

He held out his hand to me. “Come here, Gabrielle.”

I took in a deep breath and, against my better judgment, I walked over and placed my hand in his. He pulled me down onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into him and softly stroking my hair.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you. Things are happening and I can’t stop them.”

I sat up and looked at him. “What things?”