Page 24 of Friends That Heal Us
His brows furrow. “No need to apologize. You were working.” He rolls his eyes. “Plus Rya was there,” he adds with a smug look.
“Oh.” My heart sinks a little. Out of jealousy? I can’t quite explain why. From his tone of voice, he didn’t seem too thrilled that she showed up. “I didn’t think she would be there.”
“She comes around trying to cry her way back in.”
I lean my body against the door frame, crossing my arms over my chest. “Does she know you’re moving in here?”
“I didn’t tell her where I was moving to. Only that I was, and I don’t think she felt like she could ask me where I was going.”
I tilt my head in confusion. “She didn’t follow you to see where you were going?”
“I haven’t seen her with her car. I don’t know what happened to it, and I didn’t care to ask.”
“Do you think she wrecked it?”
He shrugs, his mouth pulling to the side. “Who knows? I’m assuming she got a DUI, and it’s at the pound because she’s pretty drunk every time she’s come over.”
I raise my eyebrows in shock. “I’m surprised she hasn’t taken money out of your shared bank account for it.”
He lets out a dry laugh and leans his elbows on the bed. “The little amount she leaves us means there was hardly anything in there, and I already got a new bank account.”
I blink back my shock that he has already done this. He seems so on top of everything, and it makes me wonder if he’s thought about all this before. He put his business under his dad’s name, so there were at least some prior thoughts about it. Thinking about the steps I would need to take to fully separate from Zayn sounds exhausting to me. It makes sense when people let their partner take everything because they didn’t want to go through the fight of it all.
“She hasn’t asked you for money?”
“No. But she makes comments that she doesn’t know what she’s going to do without me because she has no job.” He scoffs and rolls his head back and then back up to meet my gaze. “Only goes to show I was only there for her financial benefit.”
Zay and I always had separate accounts. It always worked for us. He paid half the bills, and I paid the other half. I remember mentioning it once before if we should get one account, but he blew it off aswhy change something that’s not broke? Made sense to me. Now I’m wondering if he thought I would take his money. Even though I’ve always been one to make my own. I never relied on him like Rya relied on Ez. I’m thankful now it’s one less thing I have to worry about.
I’m startled awake, and my heart is racing when I see the light in the hallway shining through underneath my door. Until I remember Ez lives here now. For a moment, I thought someone had broken in. Or worse, it was Zayn. I reach for my phone, and it reads three in the morning.
What’s he doing up?
I swing my covers off and walk out to the hallway. I see him sitting on the stairs with his back hunched over and his head in his hands. “Ez,” I say softly, walking up behind him. “Are you okay?”
He raises his head and shifts his body. “Yeah. Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
I squint down at him as he bounces his legs up and down. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing,” he answers, his tone heavy with frustration, like he’s been through this one too many times.
“It doesn’t look like nothing.” I tilt my head, looking further over onto his legs. “Did you hurt yourself?”
He shakes his head, turns back around and squeezes his calves with his hands.
I take a seat next to him. “What’s wrong?”
“I have restless leg syndrome. It won’t let me sleep,” he says in exhaustion.
I remember getting that when I was younger. My mom would give me magnesium and rub my feet for me until I fell asleep. It’s a pain to sleep when it kicks you out of bed and makes you wander the house late at night. It’s a weird feeling because you want to sleep and relax, and you can’t. It’s almost like an out-of-body experience. Your legs force you to get up and move, or you lie there constantly moving your legs because you can’t stop.
“Have you taken anything?” I ask.
He shakes his head.
“I’ll be back.”
A few minutes later, he comes into the kitchen and eyes the cup of magnesium I’m mixing for him. “What is that?”
