I tried to calm down before I met with Julia–she was already waiting for me when I was seated.

“Sorry I’m late,” I greeted.

“Not a problem, I was just looking over my notes for this case,” she informed, not looking up at me.

The waiter arrived. “What can I get you to drink, sir?”

“I’ll take a whiskey neat—actually, make it a double.”

He nodded and excused himself. Julia finally tore her eyes from her document. “Wow, double?” She looked at her watch. “It’s only one o’clock, you got that ‘it’s five o’clock somewhere thing’ down, huh?” she teased to no avail. “Hey…” She placed her hand on my arm. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t even know where to fucking start, Julia. Plus you’re definitely not the person I should be talking to about this.”

She cocked her head to the side. “You know, Sebby, before we were married and together, we were best friends,” she reminded.

The waiter brought back my drink and I took it down in one gulp before he was even done taking Julia’s order for a glass of wine. I ordered another double.

“Feel better?” she cautioned.

“It certainly helps.”

Once we ordered our food and I was about done with my second drink, I started to feel more at ease.

“You ready to share now? I’m a good listener, I’m also a woman and from what I know, most women can relate to other women. It’s like a girl gene or something.”

We laughed.

“Ysabelle,” I simply answered.

“Yes…I’m aware of that part. What about her?”

“It’s like I’m losing a fighting battle that I never had a chance to win in the first place. I feel like she’s slipping away from me, and the more I try to hold on to her, the worse it gets. I thought bringing her here to Miami with me would be a blessing, and now I feel like it’s been a curse. Her past is here and I never even took that into consideration. I thought she was done with it. Come to find out, it’s very present. I am at my wits end with it all and she won’t talk to me about any of it.”

“Have you tried to talk to her?” she questioned.

“She’s not like that, Julia. She doesn’t open up like normal women do; she actually hates fucking talking about feelings and shit. Sometimes I can get her guard to come down and she will tell me how she feels, but only when she’s backed into a corner,” I explained, taking a sip of my drink.

“That must suck for you,” she giggled. “You’re Mr. Communication.”

“Yeah…well…I grew up with my best friend being a girl and if I didn’t tell you how I felt, you would cry until I did. It was the only way I could get you to shut up.”

She gasped at first, then shrugged it off, grinning. “Maybe…”

“She had a rough upbringing and to go from that to VIP, it’s left her jaded and fucked up. Then add what I did to her, it’s like icing on the cake, you know?”

“You can’t blame yourself forever, Sebby. I know you lied—trust me, I hated you for a while—but when I think about it…I’m to blame, too. I knew you loved me; hell, I still know you love me. And although the love that you feel for me now is exactly the same love you felt for me then, it’s the same love you’ve always felt. I pretended that you were in love with me when I knew in my heart you never were. I took advantage of that and that’s not right. So I got what I deserved, too. We both did.”

“Julia, wow, I don’t even know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. We’re in a much better place than we have been since we got married. I married my best friend and I tried to make him my lover and husband, and for a while, it worked. In reality, if it weren’t for Ysabelle, it would have been something else. I don’t blame her and part of me is thankful to her because it made me see the truth that I tried to hide since the beginning. You’re a good man, Sebastian, you always have been. What you did was wrong but no one’s perfect, and it looks like your paying for those mistakes now.” She hesitated.

“I feel guilt for allowing you to sacrifice so much for me…first with Oli, I knew, Sebby…I always knew you loved her and I knew she loved you, too, and I used both your devotions to me as a ploy for you not to be together. And as for Ysabelle, she absolutely adores you; she loves you. I think even a blind person could see that. However, women are fickle beings and when you hurt us, it’s hard for us to forget that. We hold grudges and we analyze everything and make a problem out of nothing. You just have to be patient…she’ll come around. Just keep doing what you’re doing. It might take her more time to realize it, but she’ll get it.” She smiled.

“As for Christian we have a handle on it. This co-parenting thing will be easy; even though you’re miles away, we’ll make it work.”

“Thank you, Julia.”

“I love you, Sebby.”

“I love you, too.”