“You could have brought it up,” he cut in. “At any point. But it’s been weeks. How am I supposed to feel about that? Are you sure you’re not just trying to patch things up so I won’t give the wrong vibe when we start attending public events next year?”

She drew back, stunned. “Do you really think I’d do that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know you that well, do I? You won’t let me.”

***

Trev knew he was hurting Leanne, but he couldn’t stop talking.

He’d kept a lid on this shit for too long. And all those nights he’d slept in the guest room, when she never came looking for him? Not even once. That hurt so bad, he could barely breathe. It underscored the fact that she didn’t really care about him. She needed a warm body, someone capable of wearing the right clothes, and he’d been…available.

Not just available. Desperate, frankly.

Come on, tell me I matter. Apologize. Say you want this to work as much as I do. Please, Butterfly. Don’t send me out into the cold.

“I guess we need some time,” she said finally. “I’ll stay with Vanessa for a while. She has a spare room. I’ll tell her…” She paused, apparently unsure what to say.

“This is your place. I’m the one who should leave.”

He packed in a hurry, hardly looking at what he was grabbing, then he headed for the door. All the while, he kept hoping like hell that she’d stop him, say the magic words, but only silence followed him out. Trev went in a rush, feeling like the ground was crumbling beneath his feet. All that time, and this was how it ended.

Fuck. I don’t even have the right to be mad. She never lied to me. Not once. I just wished…ah, fuck this.

Dante lived the closest, but it would be rude as hell to show up uninvited. He texted first, a succinct—I could use somewhere to stay for a bit.

Dante: I’m home. Evonnie’s not here, there’s a princess room with your name on it.

Smiling hurt a little, but he rode over with his bag slung over his back like he was Santa instead of a fuckup with nowhere to be for the holidays. Dante didn’t even make him knock; the man opened the door and gave him a hug.

“Fighting with Leanne?”

“Yeah,” Trev said, because the truth was too much to explain, even to a friend.

“Give her a day or two to cool off, then apologize. If you want the relationship to work, it doesn’t matter who’s right.”