He’s hurting. So is she. This is fucked.
“I think I love her.” Liam has tears in his eyes now, looking down at his hands.
“I know you do. I think if we were all honest with one another, we would admit that all of us are falling for her.” The words are for him, but I look at the other two.
Santi holds up his hands. “I have no problem admitting that I’ve spent two years talking to the girl and that I’m gone for her. He’s the problem.”
Ezra looks at the ground. “I didn’t realize…”
He stops talking. Then he shakes his head.
“It’s too late for me. She won’t forgive me. Maybe you guys can talk to her. I’ll just fucking go.” He turns to leave, but Santi grabs his shoulder, pulling him into a fierce hug.
“You’re a complete dickhead, you know that? It doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be her or you, fucker. She wanted you too. So go fucking fix it.”
Ezra shakes his head. “I don’t deserve her. You will take good care of her. I’ll head back to London. Convince her to come to the party. She should have been invited long ago.”
“Nah, man. Nut up. I’ve never heard you sound so dejected before. Stop being a little pussy bitch and go apologize to her. Make it right,” Santi goads him.
Ezra looks at the door longingly. “I don’t think tonight’s a good time for that. Maybe I should try tomorrow.”
“Whatever, man. I’m going to talk to her then. She doesn’t need to spend the night alone.” Santi pushes Ezra away, walking in the back door.
Ezra waits a moment before following him, peeling off to head to the kitchen instead of the bedrooms.
“This is all fucked, isn’t it?” Liam asks.
“We will fix it. She’s ours. I’m not ready to give up the fight yet. Are you?”
“Fuck no. She’s ours,” Liam echoes.
“That’s right. It was so easy at first, but we both know nothing in life worth having ever comes easy. This is our test. Are we all willing to fight for her? I know we are, and Santi sure the fuck is. We just need to work on Ezra. We are best friends. We can make this work.” I kiss him gently.
“You really think she will forgive Ezra?”
I nod. “I think he hurt her tonight, but once he’s finally honest with not only her but himself, he will do what he does best and make it right. He’s not thinking clearly tonight. Whatever she said to him fucked him up, but I bet tomorrow morning he will have a five-point plan on how to make it up to her.”
Liam gives me a small smile. “I bet he makes her breakfast in bed.”
I snort. “I bet he does. Fucker acts like such an asshole but is a secret romantic. You think we should leave him a list of the things we know she likes?”
Liam nods seriously. “He needs all the help he can get.”
I pat him on the shoulder. “Then maybe we need to coax Santi out of her room early. If anything he makes is going to be edible, we need our resident chef.”
Liam jumps up, grabbing my hand. “Let’s go make sure we have everything we need.”
“That’s the spirit. We won’t go down without a fight.”
He nods. “Because she’s our girl.”
Sixteen
Last night sucked.
My face is puffy from all the crying.
I couldn’t even enjoy Santi crawling into bed with me because I was so damn sad. Part of me wanted to turn over and fuck him senseless to crawl out of this hole, but I knew that would only make me feel worse.
