Mastered (The Enforcers 1)

Understanding dawned, and directly on its heels came dread and deep sadness. Lana didn’t want Steph and Nikki to know she was talking to Evangeline. She closed her eyes, tears stinging the lids. Why did it have to be a choice between Drake and her best friends? Why couldn’t they be happy for her and wish her well?

“Uh, look, Vangie. I don’t want this to come across the wrong way, but Steph is pretty hurt over the way things went down. I don’t think it’s a good idea for us all to get together yet. Give it a few more weeks. Let her chill.”

“Why can’t she be happy for me?” Evangeline whispered. “Why can’t all of you be happy for me?”

Lana sighed. “We want what’s best for you. We’re just not sure this Drake guy is what’s best.”

“Shouldn’t that be my decision?”

Lana sighed again. “I’m just telling you like it is. You know how Steph is. She holds a grudge a long time, but eventually she’ll let go of it. Just give it time.”

“Would you and Nikki meet me somewhere this evening?” Evangeline asked, desperate to salvage something out of this whole fiasco.

“It’s not even an issue,” Lana said with a hint of impatience in her voice. “We have to work tonight. Open to close.”

Evangeline frowned. “But this is y’all’s day off. It’s always been your day off.”

“Not anymore,” Lana said bitterly. “Not since you left. We’re short staffed and everyone is having to take extra shifts to cover until management hires a replacement, and he’s a little too happy to be pocketing that extra salary, so he’s in no hurry to hire someone new.”

Evangeline closed her eyes, guilt and grief vying for equal attention. Despite Lana’s assertion that Steph was the one holding a grudge and she was the one “unhappy” with Evangeline, it was obvious that Lana wasn’t any more eager to reconcile than the others.

“I’m sorry to have bothered you,” Evangeline whispered. “I’ll let you go so you can go back to sleep. You have a long shift tonight.”

Before Lana could respond, Evangeline slid her finger over the button to end the call and cradled the phone to her chest, lying still, staring sightlessly up at the ceiling. The tears that had threatened during the call fell freely now, sliding from the corners of her eyes, over her temples and into her hair, dampening the pillow her head rested on.

Never in a million years would she have imagined herself to be a woman who chose a man over her best girlfriends, and yet that was exactly what she’d done. She couldn’t blame her friends for being upset or feeling betrayed. One day things had been normal, and the next everything had changed.

“I don’t regret it,” she whispered fiercely.

Drake was worth it. And if Steph, Lana and Nikki were true friends, they would have supported her from the start. They would have wanted her to be happy instead of remaining stuck in the same mundane, going-nowhere life she’d led.

She stayed in bed, staring at the ceiling, grieving the loss of three people she loved dearly. She couldn’t find it in her heart to assign blame or even resent her friends for their actions. Evangeline had acted completely out of character. Irrationally, to be honest. Things had worked out, but there were so many ways the entire situation could have gone very wrong.

If it had been one of them who’d been so impulsive, Evangeline would have reacted in the same manner. She would have fought and tried to make her friend see reason.

But love didn’t have an assigned set of rules. Love was worth any sacrifice. Just as she couldn’t—wouldn’t—blame her friends for their feelings, never would she regret her decision to be with Drake.

She loved him.

And he cared for her too. Did he love her? She wasn’t sure. But she knew she had a very important place in his life. Could he love her? Absolutely. In the beginning, she would have said that never in a million years could someone like Drake ever love someone like her, but he’d proved his words over and over. He’d proved they weren’t just words meant to elicit a desired response. And it wasn’t just about sex, because God knew, he could have any woman he wanted with nothing more than a look.

She’d seen the way women followed him with their gazes. Openly lustful expressions. Flirtatious. Brazen invitations. And yet when he was with her, it was as if other women simply didn’t exist. His attention was always solely focused on her.

She rolled to her stomach and then forced herself to sit up. She wouldn’t lie there the entire day disheartened when she’d been blessed by such a precious gift. Drake. Her life had forever changed the night she’d walked into Impulse, and looking back, she wouldn’t change a single thing leading up to that night because she wouldn’t have met Drake otherwise.