Azis looked at his phone for what felt like the hundred time after receiving Evie's text early that day. When he talked to her at the party, he thought they would speak for a couple of minutes; she would share her feelings about their relationship, and then they would go on with their lives. However, now that she wanted to talk, Azis felt it was more an effort to fix the fact that Ben was staying with him and not them, and he didn't want that to be the reason for their conversation. Yes, he understood that how he reacted to their encounter had created that, but still, Evie meant more to him than this, and he wanted their relationship to have meant enough to her to want to talk to him about it.
Ben came to stand next to his friend, asking if he had decided what his next step with the situation was going to be, and once again, Azis shook his head. They've been over his feelings several times since he received the text, but even though he didn't like the reason that provoked the response, Azis wasn't sure he didn't want to use it. "Has Mal said anything to you?"
"Only that Evie shared with her that she wrote to you and asked her if I've said something about the situation. Mal told her that I was busy with work, so we only texted a couple of times and only about us, she wasn't sure Evie believed her, but she was sticking with that." Ben told him that he was supposed to see the girls that day for lunch, he was supposed to meet them in a restaurant close to their office, and then they planned to walk around the city. The boys went to their office, and the usual morning routine took over. Azis was working on a project for a new client, so he was having a group meeting with his team, discussing the critical point they needed to plan before starting their on-site work.
The boy who was standing in front of a board with a diagram of the workflow suddenly felt like SHE was watching him; years of being in tune to her made him very aware of Evie's presence. It took everything in him not to turn to where Azis knew she would be standing and instead continue with what he was doing, barely keeping it together. Outside Mal came to stand next to Evie, telling her friend to follow her to Ben's office; they weren't supposed to disturb their work. Evie told Mal to go ahead, and she would wait for Azis to notice her so they could talk.
"No, you are coming with me. We are here because you said you need to use the bathroom; suddenly, you don't seem to be in a hurry. Azis is busy working, so let's go. Evie turned and noticed that Mal was mad and decided to follow her friend.
"I tried to talk to him, I sent him a text, and he hasn't responded, Mal. So now I'm here trying to talk to him so things can be ok again." Mal turned again, and the harshness in her eyes made Evie take a step back.
"If you wrote to him and he didn't answer, take the hint, Evie. You told me he tried to talk to you, and you said no. You decided you had nothing to say to him, now you wrote to him because you decided you had something to say. Well, now it's Azis's turn to decide if he wants to talk to you or not. Evie, you can't keep doing this to him." Suddenly they heard steps coming toward them, and Mal took her friend's hand and moved them to a secluded place closer to where Azis was and away from Ben's office, where she was sure the boy could hear them.
Looking around, Mal made sure that nobody was coming and then let go of Evie. "Look, we both know you liked him when we were younger. You had a chance to work with him and have this incredible love story; we all knew you were together, but we respected both of you and never commented about it because you two never wanted it to be talked about. Evie, you were the one that ended things because you assumed he was going to ask you to choose between your dreams and his. Azis never had a chance because you decided that without talking to him, without telling him that you wanted to go to New York. Instead, you immediately started dating Doug because you didn't want to be alone, and you can be at me for saying this, but I only know what you told me. Be honest with yourself, Azis had a right to be confused and to understand why you did that, but you don't want to give him a chance to tell you something that would make you realize that maybe you made the wrong decision by leaving him behind. I understand, but it is unfair, and you can't keep choosing for him."
Evie looked hurt, and Mal felt terrible, but her friend never wanted to talk about this, and now they needed to because Azis was her friend too, and he deserved respect. Evie had shared all of this information with her after she moved to New York but made her promise not to share it with anyone, and Mal had kept her promise which was hard knowing that Ben cared for Azis as she did for Evie. " You may think you understand the situation, but you don't, Mal. Azis is not Ben; he wasn't in love with me since we were kids and only hoped I would give him a chance. We were friends with benefits, so stop projecting your relationship with Ben on us. I'm with Doug and very happy with my decisions Mal. Now I don't feel like spending time with you, so I'm going back to the apartment to see if I can change my flight, so please stay here with your boyfriend and give me space. Oh, and don't worry, I won't be reaching out to your friend Azis again."
"Evie, don't act like that" Mal took a step toward the girl, but she took one away from her and walked into Azis,who had appeared behind the girls. Evie turned and saw him, and all the color left her face.
"Sorry I didn't see you there. Hi girls how are you?" Azis said in a professional tone, and Evie felt like she would faint. Did he hear everything Mal said? Did he listen to her? "Are you ok, Evie? You look a little pale. " Evie managed to nod, part of her wanted to kill Mal for what was happening, but her entire self was focused in not fainting.
"Mal, Ben is in his office with a client. Did he know that you guys were coming this early? I can go tell him and take over the meeting if it's ok with the client so you can go to eat." Mal thanked him but told Azis she had time because Evie was leaving. Evie turned and looked at her, unsure how to feel; part of her was grateful that she had given her a way out, but she was still mad. "Oh ok, well then come to my office, and you can wait there while I work."
After saying that, he said goodbye to Evie and signaled Mal to walk with him, and then Evie was standing alone. Suddenly, she couldn't let him go without talking to him. "Azis, I wrote you a text."
The boy turned and took a step toward her, standing a couple of steps away. "Yes, sorry I'm not free for lunch; maybe in the future, we can catch up with the rest of the group. Take care."
"I thought you wanted to talk." Her tone showed the anger about his dismissal and the boy's urge to match her tone.
"As I said, I'm busy, and we can catch up about our lives at another moment in the future. Thanks for making time, though. Have a nice trip home." He didn't give her a chance to answer and started to walk towards his office, where he assumed Mal went because the girl was no longer standing where he left her.
Evie's voice made him stop again. "Sure, no problem. I'm going to change my flight for today. Hopefully, I can find a ticket because I really miss my boyfriend."
Azis turned to look at her and then called for a girl walking by them. "Janice, hey. Please can you help my friend to change her ticket to New York for today on the first flight available. Also, can you arrange for someone to pick her up from here and take her to Ben's place and then to the airport?. " The girl who had started typing on her phone the second he started talking nodded, announcing that there was a flight leaving in three hours that had seats available.
"Great, thanks, Janice; please take care of her. Goodbye Evie, have a nice flight." Once again, he turned and this time he didn't stop walking even when Evie repeated his name while Janice asked for her information to input it on the airline's website.
As expected, Mal was standing looking uncomfortable in his office. "Did you hear us?"
"Yes, don't worry, I won't tell her or Ben. I'm assuming that was not something you guys have ever shared with other people. Look, I understand why she thought that, but I was in love with her; I think I still was before I heard what she said. I get that she is in a relationship now, and she is happy; I just wanted to know what happened back then and now I do. I'm sorry she is mad at you, though." Mal crossed her arms and looked a little defeated.
"I didn't know Ben liked me. Do you all think I did and never gave him a chance?" Azis walked towards the girl and hugged her, assuring him that nobody thought that.
"We all thought you two would be great together, but how you cared for each other and were so happy when the other found a partner made your relationship perfect. Sure, sometimes, drunk Ben would comment on how beautiful you were, and Jay and I would suspect there was more to his feelings, but you two have always had a great relationship. How about we all have lunch together after Ben finishes his meeting?"
Mal nodded, and Azis shared what happened with Evie while they waited for Ben. When Ben finally came, Azis shared that he had seen Evie, and the girl told him that she was trying to leave that day so he asked Janice to help her. Ben nodded and looked at Mal, asking her if she was ok; the girl shared that she had a disagreement with Evie and that it was private, but she knew it had made the girl leave early. The boy hugged his girlfriend, trying to comfort her, knowing well that any issue with Evie had a significant impact on her mood.
Jay and Lonnie ended up joining them for lunch, and even though Mal felt awful about the Evie situation, she still had a pleasant time.
That night after she fell asleep next to Ben after days of not being with the boy, Mal managed to rest. The boy, on the other hand, seeing Mal and knowing that the next couple of days would be rough for her, decided that it was time to be the bigger man and wrote a text to Oliver asking if he had time to have lunch the next day. The response came quickly, and they made plans; then, Ben sent a text to Lonnie asking her if she had time to take Mal out to lunch and telling her about his plans. The girl agreed and told him she was sending a text to Mal right then so she could see it in the morning and they could finalize the details of their outing and wish him luck on his lunch date.
The next day, Ben woke Mal up before leaving so they could eat breakfast together and share his plans for lunch with her. The girl assured him again that he didn't need to be friendly with Oliver on her behalf, but Ben told her that he would just have lunch and not worry about him. They kissed goodbye, and the boy went on with his day, hoping that the outing with Lonnie would help Mal distract herself from her fight with Evie.
By lunch, he was ready to have a pleasant conversation with Oliver to clear the air but had no intentions of connecting with the boy aside from some outing Mal wanted to do with her friends. However, his conversation with the boy surprised him and gave him context for many things that happened between them. When Ben arrived at the restaurant, Oliver was already there waiting, looking apologetic, and after ordering, he asked Ben to listen to his explanation about how he acted.
"I have a younger sister, we used to be close when we both lived with our parents, but once we moved away, the relationship wasn't as easy to maintain. Still, I know we could have made an effort, or at least I could. I moved away, and for the first time, I was focused on finding a place to fit in not only in a professional way but with people that view the world as I did. You see I come from a small town where most people stay there their entire lives so when I moved here I felt like a whole new world open and I couldn't wait to be a part of it, so I left behind a lot of friends, and I'm ashamed to say my family too. Communication was scarce with my parents, although they tried, and also with my sister. She had decided to stay back, she had a boyfriend since high school, a good guy, or at least that's what we thought then, that wanted to make a life with her. One day I received a call from my parents telling me I needed to go back and help them with my sister. This nice guy wasn't nice at all; he had been isolating her from her friends since they moved in together. He had destroyed her self-esteem to the point that she felt like staying with him was her only choice because nobody would love her as he did, and she was not even worthy of him. The story is long, but my sister was a shell of what she was when we convinced her to leave the guy, and even then, she would defend him, saying that he loved her." Ben nodded and started to see why Oliver was so hyper-aware of Mal's feelings he was trying to save other people from what his sister had gone through.
"I completely misread the situation between Mal and you; I wanted to think that I was helping her get out of a situation like I wished I had with my sister. She is fine now, or at least better, but I wish I had been there for her so she wouldn't have to live through everything she did." They talked for a while, and Ben understood more about Oliver, and even though it would take time, he could see them being friends in time. After eating, they said their goodbyes and Ben decided to ask him if he wanted to join him and some other friends on a game now that they were planning to have in two weeks, and the boy agreed, thanking him for giving him a chance to explain himself.
That night when she saw Mal at their apartment, he told her that he enjoyed his lunch with Oliver and that he had invited the boy to their game night, and he loved the smile it brought to her. Then he asked her if she had heard from Evie, and she shook her head, sadness coming her, and he hugged her asking her if she wanted him to talk to her, but Mal said no.
"We both need time, that's all." Ben nodded, but that night he hugged her until she fell asleep in his arms, wishing he could fix the situation but knowing that he needed to respect her wishes.