Page 57 of New Year's Faye

"What? I'm just saying, if I'd known you were going to not come home last night I wouldn’t have waited up.”

I snorted. “As fucking if.” I glanced around the table. “What’s this about?”

“Call it a romance intervention.” Justice leaned forward. “Is she in love with you yet?”

A knife cut through my chest, piercing my heart.

"Justice." Radley's tone held a warning.

"Fine." He pushed a glass toward me. "Drink. You look like you need it."

I took the drink but didn't sip it. "Why am I here?"

"Because," Felix said, "you're an idiot."

"Thanks."

"A well-meaning idiot," Radley added kindly. "But still an idiot."

I rubbed a hand over my face. "If this is an intervention?—"

"This is us," Justice cut in, suddenly serious, "telling you to stop hiding."

"I'm not?—"

"Dude." Felix leaned forward. "You've been in love with Faye since before we were even a band. You wrote an entire album's worth of songs about her. You married her—drunk or not, that wasn't an accident."

"And now," Radley continued, "when you have the chance to do something romantic and declare you’re love you’re piss-farting around with your dick in your hand. You need to be fighting for her."

I rolled my tongue over my teeth. “She knows.”

That took the wind out of their sails.

“What?”

"And she said she needed time."

"And you're giving it to her because that's what you do." Justice's voice was gentler now. "You give and give and never ask for anything back. But brother, sometimes you have to fight for what you want."

"I don't want to pressure her."

"It's not pressure to be honest." Radley reached across the table, squeezing my hand. "She deserves to know everything. Not just the songs, but why you wrote them. Why you kept them hidden. Why you've stayed silent all these years."

I stared into my untouched drink. "She'll overthink this. Try to work out why we don’t make sense."

"Maybe." Justice shrugged. "Or maybe she’ll come around. Who the fuck knows?”

"Not me," I muttered.

"Oh for—" Radley threw her hands up. "Are you actually blind? Have you not seen how she looks at you? How she takes care of you? How she's the only one you let close enough to really see you?"

"That's just Faye. She takes care of everyone."

"No." Felix's voice was firm. "She takes care of the band because it's her job. She takes care of you because she wants to."

"There's a difference," Justice added, "between professional Faye who manages our careers, and your Faye who knows exactly how you take your coffee and carries pain relievers for your shoulder. She watches you during every performance like you're the only person in the room."

I opened my mouth to argue, then closed it as memories hit me.

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