Chapter 34
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
brEAKUPS WERE UNBEARABLE. It took two weeks of wallowing between work and sleep before she was in any capacity to see her friends. Anna and Sophie were pretty insistent on visiting, but she couldn’t play host when she was miserable.
Tonight, though, they were coming to her apartment, and she was positive the conversation would be about nothing but what happened with Elijah.
The number of times she replayed the breakup was exhaustive, but maybe her friends would have some advice.
Sophie was the first to arrive.
“Men suck,” her best friend announced once they were seated on the couch. She pulled Georgia in for a snuggle. “I’m sorry you’re hurting, but it will get better. I promise.”
Promises didn’t mean much to Georgia at the moment, but with her head resting on Sophie’s shoulder, she was grateful for her friend.
The doorbell rang, and Sophie shouted that the door was open.
“I come with wine and pizza,” Anna declared as if that solved any problem.
Locking the door behind her, she came into the living room, where she dropped the food on the coffee table before heading into the kitchen. When she returned, she had a wine opener.
“Screw wineglasses,” Anna told her as she screwed off the top of the wine bottle.
This made Georgia smile. It was a small one, barely visible, but it was there.
Sophie gave her a tight squeeze before scooting a few inches so they had space to eat. “Do you want to tell us what happened?”
“Or do you want the station’s version?” Anna added. “And I promise in this version Elijah is such an asshole.”
“No.” Sophie shook her head. “We are not talking about the station unless it is part of George’s story.”
Anna took a swig from the bottle.
Georgia grabbed the bottle from Anna and took a healthy sip. “Before I get started, sharing a bottle is a good way for us to get sick since we are passing germs.”
“Noted, Doctor,” Anna told her as Sophie confiscated the bottle from Georgia. “Now start talking.
“Elijah wanted to try being exclusive, and it was going well, fantastic even. We were talking about everything and anything. We connected. Whether we were lying in bed reading or out for dinner, it didn’t make a difference.
Every moment was special. Sacred. Just being with him was all that mattered, and we spent so much time together. ”
“Girl, he gave you a key,” Sophie pointed out.
Anna nodded. “And I saw the screen saver on his phone. It was a picture of you.”
This was news to Georgia.
“Plus, you gave him your virginity. That’s huge!” Sophie added.
“The sex was unbelievable. Some days, I wasn’t sure if I could walk straight. And the orgasms? I’m talking multiple orgasms in a day.” Georgia blushed as she shared the intimate details. “None of it mattered. Unbeknownst to me, things were not as great as I thought.”
No matter how many times she dissected it, things were amazing—until they weren’t.
“When I went to the station to see him and bring snacks for the crew, it was like he shut me out. That morning, we literally had sex against his living room wall, and that night, he was ready to call it quits. He dragged me into his closet of an office and told me he knew I was going to expect more, that I deserved better, and that his job is dangerous, which means he can’t think long term.
It was complete crap, and I told him I was done. ”
“Good for you!” Sophie gave a small smile. “You do deserve better, someone who can give you their all.”
Georgia groaned. “That’s the worst part. He asked for us to slow down. How much slower can we go? It’s taken him what, six months, to even accept dating? Screw that! I told him I wasn’t waiting around, and I’m not.”
Anna was quiet.
“What are you thinking?” Georgia asked, wondering what kept her friend suspiciously quiet.
She winced, like Georgia wasn’t going to like what she had to say. “You had your first fight, and it ended with a breakup?”
“A well-deserved breakup!” Sophie countered with annoyance. “She doesn’t need to worry about him. She needs to move on and find someone else.”
What?
Georgia sank into her seat.
There was no way she was ready to meet someone else.
Anna took her turn for a sip of wine. “She needs to talk to him.”
“Why, so he can re-tell her how he isn’t ready to commit?” Sophie wasn’t backing down.
Anna rolled her eyes. “He never said he couldn’t commit. There is obviously something deeper going on, and they need to talk about it.”
Georgia clapped her hands together to get their attention. Well, that and to get them to stop bickering about her breakup.
“Ladies, I appreciate you being here. You two are the best friends a girl could ask for. When it comes to Elijah, the ball is in his court. We always said we’d only chase ice cream trucks or book sales, not men.
I’m sticking to our mantra.” When Georgia reminded them of their high school pact, it only reinvigorated her.
“Hell yeah!” Sophie high-fived her while Anna saluted with the bottle of wine.
“Listen, do I love him? Yes. Without any doubt. But he needs to decide whether he actually wants a relationship. If he does, then what does being with me look like? I’ve decided no matter how much my heart aches, I need to keep living my life.
I’m not waiting for him because Elijah was right. I do deserve better.”
Anna and Sophie exchanged a look.
“We support you,” Anna assured her.
Sophie hugged Georgia close again. “Now let’s watch some trashy reality television.”
Another smile, bigger than the one before, came from Georgia.
Heartbreak was awful, but her best friends were the greatest.
THREE FUCKING WEEKS.
Elijah was living a nightmare.
His peach broke up with him. Nash was barely speaking to him. Anna only responded to him at the station, and it was with one-word responses. His office reminded him of Georgia, and how things ended, so he hated being at work.
And he only had himself to blame.
These were his last few hours before he was off shift for three days, and he didn’t have a single plan outside of sleep and working on his house. That was all he had done since Georgia left him, dragging all the light and happiness with her.
He had to get away from his desk and the lingering memory of the last time he saw Georgia in his office. Going to the break room, Sloane and Anna immediately hushed, which was one clue he was the subject of their conversation.
“Great, there he is.” Anna crossed her arms.
That summed it up. They were talking about him.
Sloane angled her head to the side. “Maybe we should just ask him ourselves.”
Anna only lifted a shoulder, but it wasn’t a no, so he took the opportunity to join them. Perhaps there was an off chance she would slip up and mention Georgia. He hoped she was doing better than him. Elijah took a seat in the empty chair.
“How are you?” Sloane was kind with her words.
Anna scooted her chair from him. Solidarity and all for Georgia, he figured.
He stretched his legs. “I’m fucking miserable, and everything, I mean everything, reminds me of Georgia.
My house, work, the bar, hell even my books.
She breathed something like magic into my life, and now it’s gone.
A piece of me knows I did the right thing, but then the selfish part of me wants to make sure she never has a chance to leave me again.
But doesn’t she deserve to play the field a bit, be with someone who has a reliable career, someone safer? ”
Sloane gently nodded as she listened, while Anna whipped out her phone and started texting someone.
“I love her, and I’m a fucking mess without her.” He gulped while admitting this. “But I don’t deserve her.”
“But you’re making the choice for her. A long time ago, I let go of someone who I thought I wasn’t good enough for, and it still haunts me.
I don’t think I made the right decision, and I have to live with that,” Sloane confided in them, sadness creeping over her as her hands were jittery and her mouth turned down.
“I’m sorry,” Elijah told her. He wasn’t big on responding to emotions, but he understood where she was coming from.
“Don’t be, it’s a choice I made, and I have to deal with it.”
Anna finally glanced up from her phone. “Sloane, we need a girls’ night because we need to talk. But you, Lou? I don’t understand how you can throw around all this poetic love for George and not be with her.”
“It isn’t that simple. I can’t ask her to take me back.” Elijah didn’t like the attitude he was getting from Anna, especially when she didn’t get it.
“Oh, it is. If you love her, and you know damn well she loves you, then why are you sitting around here crying about it?”
“I’m not crying,” he pushed back. He wasn’t crying today, in front of them, but semantics.
She waved him off. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are to find your person? You’re in love with an amazing woman, and your plan is to walk away? That’s not the type of man I thought you were. How are you going to handle it when she starts dating someone else?”
“Is she?” Elijah sat up. “Anna, answer me. Is she already dating someone else?”
Anna smirked, and like it was perfect timing, Roman joined their group.
“Why are you here?” Elijah, not so nicely, asked his friend. He wasn’t scheduled to work until Monday, so there was no reason for him to be at the station on Friday. Roman did tend to stop by if Anna was working, even if he wasn’t.
They both swore up and down they were just friends, and Elijah believed them.
But he was still jealous of their connection.
Fuck, he missed Georgia.
“Tomorrow night, I’m taking Georgia out for drinks.” Roman swung his arm over Anna’s chair.
This was all too casual and not fucking okay with Elijah.
“What do you mean, you’re taking her out for drinks?” he snarled.
Roman didn’t react. “She’s single, she’s hot, she’s smart, and her body—”
“Shut the fuck up.” Elijah did react.
“Why are you mad? She’s single.” Anna smirked as she asked him the question.
Elijah pulled his hand down his face. “No. No, this is not happening.”
“Is there a reason I can’t take her out?” Roman cocked his head, waiting for an answer.
“Yeah. Is there a reason Georgia can’t date someone else?” Anna was putting on the pressure, but it didn’t matter. Elijah broke long before this conversation.
He scowled. “I’m in love with her. I was a fucking idiot to her, and I need to beg her to take me back.”
“Hell yeah!” Anna and Roman smacked hands. “I knew you wanted to be with her and just needed a little push.”
Crossing his arms, he glared at Anna for the stunt she pulled. “I didn’t need the threat of Roman. She’s all I’ve thought about. She consumes me. She’s all I want.”
“Whew, that was close. I thought you were going to either fire me or kill me, or possibly both.” Roman chuckled.
For the first time in three weeks, Elijah cracked a smile. “You’ll never know.”