Page 86 of Finally Loved

Roxanne looked at her, scowling. “What I do on my own time is none of their business.”

“Agreed. But when you’re lying to your partner about them, or putting your partner down and using your family as some sort of shield to play victim behind, it matters, Roxanne.”

“I did no such thing.”

“You did,” Neve said. “It’s over now, but your actions had consequences. You can keep who you are a secret. You can do whatever you want, but don’t act like you’re the victim when the prejudices you’re carrying are your own and you’re using them to hurt others.”

“I didn’t—”

“Hey, babe.” The guy Alba had pointed out appeared at Roxanne’s side. “Who are your friends?”

Before Roxanne could speak, Alba reached out a hand to greet him. “Alba. This is my parents’ place. Roxanne and I go way back. And this is Neve, my girlfriend.”

He smiled widely. “Nice to meet you both. I’m Nate, Roxanne’s boyfriend.”

“So good to meet you. You make a cute couple.”

He laughed sincerely. “Yeah, you know, pretty new, really. Well, officially at least, but it’s going well.”

Neve shared a look with Alba. Nate was nice, he deserved good things. Neve wondered whether Roxanne had any capacity to give him those.

“Oh, yeah?” Alba enquired.

“Yeah.” He wrapped his arm around Roxanne’s shoulders. “We’ve been seeing each other since Christmas, but just made it exclusive last month.”

Neve sighed. She wasn’t perfect, she knew that, but she really hadn’t been the problem. She and Roxanne had supposedly been exclusive long before that.

Alba pressed a kiss to the top of Neve’s head. “Nate, why don’t you and I get our ladies some drinks? You can tell me all about it while we do.”

They left, and Neve watched Roxanne, who was suddenly bright red. Neve wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Roxanne blush before.

Roxanne didn’t speak, apparently lost for words.

Neve wasn’t. “I deserved better, Roxanne.”

“It’s not what you think,” she replied, a little frantic.

Neve breathed a laugh. “How could any part of that not be what I’m thinking?”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen. It just did.”

“Right…”

“You don’t know. You’ve got no idea what it’s like when you need things your partner won’t give you.”

Neve sighed. “I needed honesty, Roxanne. I needed loyalty. You weren’t giving me either of those.”

“It’s not like you weren’t happy with what we had.”

“Actually, I wasn’t happy,” Neve said, feeling the release of finally getting to tell her that.

“Yes, you were.”

“No. I wasn’t. I was trying to be, but I was with someone who was making me feel terrible about who I am. I’ve learned it’s not possible to be truly happy when that’s happening to you.”

“It’s not like I was bullying you.”

Neve sighed again. She was bored of this. She was bored of being treated like she was a kid everyone had to keep things from, like they got to make decisions and tell her how she was allowed to feel about them.

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