Emily watched Eddie rush out and felt her heart plummet. He told her everything she’d hoped to hear from him. He liked her. A lot. And he cared enough that he wanted her to be happy, without a concern for his own feelings.
Emotion swelled her throat, making it hard to breathe. She’d never had anyone who cared about her like that before. Someone who put her first. Someone who wanted her to be happy more than he wanted himself to be happy.
Emily shook her head, laughing quietly, as she compared the two men who’d been such a huge part of her life over the last few years. Eddie let her date Nick even though he cared for her. She didn’t know if Nick knew how Eddie felt, but she was fairly certain he did, and he let his friend suffer. Eddie knew how she liked her coffee, when her birthday was, the little things that mattered. After all the time she’d been with Nick she knew, without a doubt, Eddie had been the one to feed her details and make sure she had a gift.
Emily wandered through her room and picked up the gifts Nick had given her. Earrings for her birthday, a bracelet for Christmas, a card when she was sick that had made her laugh, the four leaf clover he’d laminated for her to carry in her wallet, and the flowers he’d given her for Valentine’s Day that she’d pressed and saved. When she’d collected everything that she’d kept, all the things that meant the most to her she left her apartment, a woman on a mission.
Ten minutes later Emily pulled up in front of Eddie’s apartment. She had to talk to him, to ask him what she knew was the truth. It was glaringly obvious now that she wasn’t under Nick’s control anymore. Influenced by how much she thought she loved him.
Emily knocked on the door and waited for Eddie to let her in. When he opened the door she breathed him in, his scent tickling her brain and bringing back flashes of memory. Memory she struggled to place. Until it hit her with such force she couldn’t do anything, including breathe.
“Holy shit. I stripped and tried to get you to sleep with me, didn’t I?”
