to you, but I do know that as long as you listen to her, and keep focused on what happened all those years ago instead of paying attention to your own feelings and what’s happening now, this is never going to work.”
Never going to work? Oh God—
She couldn’t breathe.
“Wait—stop. Are you breaking up with me?”
“No.” He sounded weary. “I think you’re the one breaking up with me.”
Claws stalked through the apartment, swishing her tail, but for once neither of them took any notice.
“I’m not! All I’m saying is—” She broke off and his gaze locked on hers.
“All you’re saying is that you don’t trust me. Not enough. You don’t trust us, or what we have. Maybe this was a fling to you, a way of discovering your sexuality, but it was more than that for me. Yes, the sex is off the scale but I’m not interested in a fling, Frankie. Not with you. I want the whole thing, thick and thin, richer and poorer, sickness and health, but only if you one hundred percent trust in what we have. I’ve seen my parents weather rough times, and they’ve done it because they trusted each other and in their love, and neither one of them was ever going to give up on that.”
“I don’t know if you’re breaking up or proposing.”
“Neither. I’m asking you to think about what we have and what you want. Because I don’t want to be in a relationship where one of us doubts the other. That doesn’t work for me.” He reached for his phone and his keys and she felt an acute stab of panic.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going for a walk, and then I’m going to the workshop.”
“It’s Sunday.” And they’d planned on having a lazy morning followed by a long walk in Central Park. She’d been looking forward to it.
“I know what day it is.” He paused for a moment and rubbed his fingers over his forehead, as if he was trying to ease an enormous pressure. “We lost a couple of days because of Roxy, so I need to catch up, and—I need some space.”
“From me?”
“I’m not made of stone, Frankie. I have feelings, too. I care about you. I care about us, and the fact that you don’t want the same thing—” He broke off and then shook his head. “I’ll see you later.”
She’d never seen him this upset. The emotion visible in his eyes was raw, real and almost too painful to watch. And even more painful was the knowledge that she was the cause.
Feeling sick, Frankie opened her mouth to speak, to stop him leaving, but Matt left the apartment without looking back.
* * *
“MATT? WAIT.”
Realizing that someone was yelling at him, Matt turned and saw Eva sprinting toward him. Her hair flew around her shoulders and she was wearing flip-flops on her feet.
The last thing he wanted right now was company, but he stopped and waited for her to catch up with him. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. At least not with me.” She was breathless and her hair was messy.
“Your T-shirt is on inside out. You look as if you just got out of bed.”
“That’s because I did.” She tugged at it self-consciously. “Ten minutes ago I was asleep.”
“What woke you?”
“Frankie, banging on my door.”
He tensed. “Look, I understand you’re worried about your friend, but I can’t talk about this right now, Ev.”
“I’m not here because I’m worried about Frankie. I’m here because I’m worried about you.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you.” She grabbed his hand. “Let’s go to the park. It’s lovely at this hour.”
His chest ached, but he didn’t want her to know how bad he was feeling so he forced himself to tease her. “How would you know? You hardly ever see this hour?”
“True. So let’s go and see if the rumors are true. I’ll buy you coffee and we can talk.”
He didn’t want to talk, but he couldn’t think of a way of telling her that wouldn’t offend her so he gave in and walked with her along the street toward the park.
It was a slow Sunday morning and the neighborhood was just waking up. They strolled past family-owned stores brimming with fresh produce, and Eva dragged him into Petit Pain, the artisan bakery that also sold the best coffee in the area.
“Here.” She handed him a tall coffee and a bag containing a still-warm pastry. “Let’s go and find a comfortable bench to sit on.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Never argue with a woman who’s just woken up.”
He gave