Page 95 of The Fire

“Nothing.” Ev waved a hand. “Just glad to know I’m not the only one with aRiverdancefetish.”

“Pretty sure you are,” I returned. I swallowed. “So… did you?”

Everett shook his head. “I heard from Cal. He called an hour or so ago. Ash got Parker liquored up on Irish coffee, and Cal put him in the shower to sober up. From what Cal said, he was pretty upset.”

I winced, remembering how devastated he’d looked when he’d left. I fucking hated that he was in pain—hated that I was the one who’d hurt him. But it was probably for the best.

“So what happened?”

I shook my head. “Buncha shit. Doesn’t matter.”

“Clearly,” Ev agreed, looking around at the wreck of my kitchen. “Doesn’t matter at all.”

“We broke up,” I said. “That’s the short version.”

“Well, maybe you’d better give me the long version and catch me up.” Ev leaned against the wall and folded his arms over his chest. “Since I wasn’t aware the two of you were actuallytogether.”

I ran a hand over my face. “We weren’t. Officially.”

“But you wanted to be,” Ev prompted.

Another humorless laugh. “Since I was seventeen. That’s not new.”

“And Parker didn’t want to be?”

“No, he… I don’t know. Yes. Maybe.” I shrugged. “He says he loves me.”

“Parkerlovesyou. Okay, clearly I’m more than a couple of episodes behind here,” Ev grumbled. “More like a couple ofseasons. Why don’t we have one of those friendships where youtellme things?”

I rolled my shoulder, which was really starting to ache now that I’d stopped moving. “I feel like I’m missing whatever gene it is that lets guys deal with shit bytalking. It seems… uncomfortable.”

Ev laughed. “Touché. So… love, huh.”

“Things change fast around here, Ev.” I looked around at the kitchen’s yellow walls, which looked particularly dingy and old now that the rest of the kitchen was gone. “Except when they don’t change at all.”

“Come on.” Ev tugged on the sleeve of my shirt and tried to pull me toward the living room. “Surely you have some furniture in this place where I can sit my ass down and hear this story.”

I laughed as he took stock of the empty living room with its newly refinished floors and fresh, cream-colored walls. “I’m kinda low on furniture, to be honest.”

“Shit,” Ev said, looking around at the transformed space. “No carpet? No little tchotchkes on the shelves?”

“Not a dust catcher in sight,” I agreed.

He wandered down the hall, past the bathroom—which hadn’t changed at all—to Molly’s room. The walls were covered in primer and the drop cloth on the floor was covered with boxes and containers of dishes and other kitchen stuff. On a table by the window sat Parker’s plants in their little pots.

Of course, Everett noticed them immediately.

“These are new,” he said, touching one of the succulents’ spiny leaves and giving me asignificantsort of look.

“They’re Parker’s. He left them behind.” I shrugged.

“And you’re taking care of them.”

“I wouldn’t saytaking care. I moved them in here so they wouldn’t get destroyed. Least I could do.”

“Right. Least you could do, while you were destroying your kitchen, was to set up a cute little table by the window where the plants could be happy.”

I ran my tongue over my teeth and said nothing.