Page 60 of Sure, Pal

28

Evan

For the next few weeks, I fell into a rhythm with Sienna, and it was the only thing that kept my head above water. A few mornings a week, she’d come with me to my mom’s house, and we’d take care of all the household chores.

On the nights that I worked at the restaurant, she’d hang out at the bar until I was off. On the nights I didn’t work, and she had gigs, I’d watch her sing and let her beautiful voice sink into my soul. Then we’d go back to my place, or hers, and fall asleep in each other’s arms.

That was all that existed to me.

One night, I walked into her coffee shop gig and was surprised to see less than half of her usual crowd. Her last two shows at a bar had low turn-outs, too, now that I thought about it. I’d been in such a fog that it hadn’t even registered, but something was off.

I watched Sienna up on the little stage, pride filling me to the brim when she started singing one of her originals.

Not every chance is made of gold,

Not every road is right

Not every love is made to last

Or even worth the fight…

Damn, she was beautiful. I knew, watching her up on that little stage, bravely singing her own anthem, that I’d never love another woman the way I loved her.

After Sienna’s show, we walked through the parking lot, hand-in-hand. That was all we’d done since the funeral — hold hands and spoon in bed. My head felt too messed up for anything else, and Sienna didn’t deserve the roller coaster I’d most definitely put her through if I acted on my physical desires.

I unlocked my car and she put her guitar in the back seat. She looked sad and tired. Was it because of me, or something else? “Sienna? What’s going on?” I asked.

She frowned and climbed into my passenger seat. “What do you mean?”

“You look sad, and your crowds got really small all the sudden.” I glanced over at her as I drove to her apartment.

“Oh.” She stared at her hands. “You noticed that, huh?”

“Yes.” I reached over and took her hand, running my thumb over the calluses on the tips of her fingers. She’d been playing her guitar constantly, hardly giving herself a break.

Sienna let out a long, slow breath. “I told Ava about us.”

I nodded. I figured that was the case when they didn’t come within ten feet of each other at my dad’s funeral. “I know.”

Sienna sighed. “So, you saw her post then?”

I raised both eyebrows. “Her post? No… I haven’t really been on any social platforms for a while.”

“Oh, well, that’s probably for the best.”

“Sienna, what happened with Ava?” From the look on her face, something worse than a little fight went down.

Sienna flashed me a fake smile. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Seriously, what happened?”

Sienna sighed. “Uh, okay, if you really want to know, she said I was dead to her and then made a very public post about her back-stabbing, bitch ex-best friend. She deleted it later, but my number of followers tanked from about 14k to 600 in less than forty-eight hours.” Sienna’s voice sounded tight and stressed. “But you know, they followed me because Ava told them to, and they left me because Ava told them to. They were never really my fans.”

“Shit. And you didn’t tell me.” I pulled into a parking stall and took both of Sienna’s hands in mine.

Sienna let out a dry laugh and shook her head. “You kind of had other things on your plate. You still do. This isn’t important.”

“Of course it is. You…” My head spun, and my heart pounded. “You broke up with your best friend and then got attacked by trolls, even after I pushed you away. Why would you do that?”

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