Page 134 of Sing For Me

Eva

The morning after Will Ransome stomped all over my heart, I do the thing I always do when shit gets rough—I call my friends.

Caleb is on set all day and Luke is in New York, but Sosie, Luke’s wife Vicky, Geoff, and, of course, Marissa all agree to come right away. They make plans for copious amounts of take-out and junk food, agree we can watch as many bad sci-fi shows as I want, and promise to be over ASAP.

And the best part? They don’t ask me any questions. That part will come later, I’m sure. But I know they’ll do whatever they can to help me feel soothed and loved before they start the grilling.

When the doorbell rings only a few minutes later, I shake my head. Apparently Geoff, who lives the closest, wasn’t kidding when he said he’d be here “in a sec.”

Marissa ran out to stock up on ice cream and potato chips so I go downstairs to let him in myself, knowing it has to be one of my friends because the gate never buzzed and they’re the only people who have the code.

Almostthe only people. I forgot for a minute that Dennis has it too, and he’s the one standing on my porch when I open the door.

He immediately frowns when he sees me. “You aren’t dressed.”

I blink at him. “Dressed for what?”

A flash of impatience crosses his face. “Your doctor’s appointment.”

Shit. With the total annihilation of my heart last night, I forgot all about the appointment. I didn’t sleep another minute after Will left, crying on and off throughout the night, and a shower certainly hasn’t been on the agenda this morning. I probably look like total shit, and the thought of leaving the house right now makes me feel sick.

“We have to reschedule it,” I say, leaning against the doorframe. “I just can’t today.”

He opens his mouth to argue but then he seems to take me in, really take me in. The pajamas and the red rimmed eyes and what I’m sure is a rat’s nest of hair on top of my head. He frowns. “What’s wrong?”

Oh, God. I’m still feeling raw enough that the very question is enough to make my eyes well with tears.

“Will broke up with me,” I mumble, wiping at my tender cheeks.

“Oh, shit.” He pushes into the house and slings an arm around my shoulder “I’m sorry, Eva. Let’s go upstairs and I’ll make you some tea.”

I would laugh if I wasn’t so close to sobbing. Dennis has never been the softest guy, and the thought of him clucking around my kitchen taking care of me is comical. But I certainly appreciate the sentiment, so I lean into him as he guides me up the stairs.

“You want to talk about it?” he asks, depositing me onto a stool at the kitchen island. He tosses his keys and the day planner and folders he was carrying down on the counter in front of me and heads to the stove to fill the kettle.

“I guess he didn’t like me as much as I thought,” I mumble, rubbing at my dry eyes. God, I’ve gone around and around on this so many times and I’m still having a hard time trying to figure out what, exactly, had happened last night. He’d been pissed to wake up and find me on the phone with another guy and even when I explained, he’d been downright nasty about it. But really, things had been off even before that—he’d been clearly upset when he found out his brother had called me. Hell, he’d been in a dark mood for the past week. But he hadn’t completely flipped out until I pushed him to open up.

“I can’t imagine that’s true.” Dennis rummages around in my cupboards until he finds a teabag and plops it into a mug of hot water. I try not to think about how hard Vicky would wince if she saw that—Vick’s mom is British and the girl can wax on for hours about the proper way to make a cup of tea.

A pang of longing goes through my chest. I want her here. I want my friends. Dennis is fine, he’s always had my back when it comes to my career and he obviously cares about me. But it just isn’t the same. I cross my fingers that Marissa will hurry back from the store.

“I should have known this was going to happen,” I mutter.

Dennis makes a vague noise of agreement and I look up from my tea to see him typing something on his phone. He finishes and looks up, giving me an apologetic smile. “Just letting Dr. Kyler know that we’ll reschedule.”

“Okay. Thanks.” I honestly would be happy to just cancel the entire thing. The last thing I want to do right now is start thinking about returning to work. On the other hand, maybe immersing myself in something would help me to not feel like I want to crawl out of my skin, which has been a primary symptom of my heartbreak since Will left.

I had thought recovering from second and third degree burns and a crushed hip had been painful but in this moment, I’m pretty sure I’d do that all over again to not have to feel the pain of losing him.

I’m in love with Will. Despite how careful I tried to be since we met, insisting we be friends first, trying to take it slow. None of it mattered. Somewhere between the night at the gala and watching him play guitar at that campfire, I fell for him. And the realization that it didn’t mean as much to him, that he didn’t think we were worth fighting for—it takes my breath away, the pain is so bad.

“Eva?” I look up to see Dennis peering at me, a concerned look on his face. “You look really pale.”

“This sucks, Dennis,” I whimper, rubbing at my aching chest. “It really, really sucks.”

“You know what I think?” He leans his elbows onto the kitchen island, studying my face. “I think you should be channeling this shit.”

“Channeling it?”