Page 29 of Filthy Rich Silver Foxes

I don’t answer.

“Gen,” she says, quieter now. “Talk to me.”

I swallow hard. “It wasn’t just sex.”

She softens a little, shoulders slumping. “I know.”

“It wasn’t—he didn’t make me feel used. Not while it was happening. I thought…” I press my palms over my face. “God, I thought I meant something to him.”

“You probably did.”

“Then why did he leave?”

Evie exhales slowly. “Because he’s a coward. Because something about you scared the shit out of him and instead of facing it, he bolted.”

I shake my head. “I don’t scare men.”

“Babe, you do. You’re smart, capable, stunning, successful. You built a company from scratch while half the people in our lives were still figuring out how to microwave pasta. Of course you scare men. The good ones are into it. The weak ones? They run.”

Her certainty makes my throat burn.

I stare at the folded blanket on my lap, trying not to cry again. “I thought I was different. I’ve never…I just thought it was different. But I was obviously just a random fling.”

“You’re not,” she says. “He was the wrong one. That doesn’t makeyouwrong.”

The tears come anyway, silently trailing down my cheeks. Evie doesn’t push. She just sits beside me and lets me cry it out while she scrolls through her phone and mutters insults under her breath.

“Seriously,” she adds after a minute, “if you gave me even half a green light, I could have the internet hating him by dinner. He’d never be able to order coffee without someone spitting in it again.”

“You’re scary.”

“I’m loyal. There’s a difference.”

I laugh through my tears, and she smiles in that way she does when she knows she’s finally hit the right nerve.

I lean into her side with a sigh, every nerve ending feels raw and exposed. “I don’t want revenge. I want to stop feeling like an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot, Gen. You were vulnerable. You let yourself want something. That’s brave, not dumb.”

“He left a note, Evie. A fuckingnote…”

“And I’d like to leave a horse head in his bed. But we all have our coping mechanisms.”

“He said he enjoyed our time together.”

She tilts her head. “Did he also use the word synergy?”

“It read like a press release.”

“Then I hope he chokes on it.”

“I wanted to matter to him, Evie.” My voice cracks on it. “I didn’t expect forever. Just...enough to earn more than a note.”

She rests her head on top of mine. “You’re going to be okay. He doesn’t get to break you. You’re too damn good for that.”

I nod. Slowly. Because I have to believe that’s true. Even if it doesn’t feel like it right now.

* * *