Sean
His two best friends were idiots.
Watching them bounce back and forth off each other, even as they continuously orbited each other, was painful and exhausting. And annoying.
But he’d always thought it was for the best. Evie was solid and still, the roots of a tree, embedded and deep. Tilly was all wild leaves that blew about in the wind and only sometimes found themselves whipping back to where they came from.
He loved them both fiercely. Strongly. Truly, he did. But he’d always had a softer spot for Evie, because she’d seemed more easily hurt, more fragile in it all. She was, if he were honest, less of a mystery, and he felt more protective of her.
Something had changed since she’d got pregnant. Since Tilly was back.
This pregnancy had tilted them all wildly off the path and they were all stumbling in the dark. Evie was making life decisions, making choices that absolutely changed everything. Tilly was confessing her love for Evie on a sandy beach, toes digging into the grains as she dug into the truth of herself, so vulnerable he’d grabbed hold of her to make sure she knew she had someone.
And Sean?
Sean was empathising with Tilly. He was seeing he’d misread some things, or missed when those things had changed into something new. Something different.
Missed that Tilly had been changing.
You can have a person in front of you for over a decade and your expectations make you miss that they’re actually not meeting them anymore and are going their own way.
Who knew?