"Overwhelming, a bit," she suggests, and blows out a quiet breath in something not quite a sigh. "Guess I haven't done much to help with that, have I?"
She certainly hasn't done much to dissuade Steven from what she'd convinced herself was nothing more than a crush.
"With-- what, with Steven?" Marc shakes his head. "That's not on you. We didn't tell you. And even if knew and you'd avoided him, that wouldn't have gone over well, either. You were just his friend. He needs those."
"No," she agrees, with a slight, rueful quirk to her lips, not quite a smile. "Avoiding him would've just made all three of us miserable. But I might've set some different boundaries if I'd been a little less oblivious."
Or maybe not - if she's being honest with herself, her boundaries have been looser with Steven than with most other friends she's had as an adult, compounding the blurred lines they'd begun with.
"No use dwelling on the past, though. We just...need to figure out how we're going to work through this."
"Yeah, I got-- I really got nothin'," Marc admits, with a kind of quiet helplessness. "I have no idea what to do. I want Steven to be happy. And I want you to be happy. I don't know what it looks like to make both of you happy, here."
That helplessness makes her heart ache - all the more so because of what he doesn't say.
"Me neither," she says, gaze dropping to their interlocked hands before flicking back up to his face. "But you're missing an important part of the equation, habibi."
His brows come together briefly, as if he doesn't know what she means, but after a beat he figures it out and has to shake his head. "You mean me? Well, I don't know how to make me happy in this situation, either," he adds on. "The only thing I got there is you not leaving me, and you seem pretty clear on that part."
"Yeah," Layla says quietly. "I am. Everything else might be a little murky, but that part's crystal clear."
She squeezes his hand, as though to underscore that statement, reassurance for herself as much as for him. Overwhelming as this might be, it's not insurmountable. They'll get through this. They just need to figure out how.
God, he doesn't deserve her. He brings her hands up to his mouth to kiss the back of them, first one then the other. "I love you," is all he can think of to say, first. Which, apparently, is why they're in this confusing mess to begin with. A love triangle with himself. Ugh.
Her expression softens, warmth burning away some of the wan edge. "I love you too," she says.
Two things clear, then, intertwined though they are. Complicated though their relationship might be - difficult as it sometimes has been - he's still the love of her life.
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scarabwings) wrote2022-08-14 11:52 pm
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She certainly hasn't done much to dissuade Steven from what she'd convinced herself was nothing more than a crush.
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Or maybe not - if she's being honest with herself, her boundaries have been looser with Steven than with most other friends she's had as an adult, compounding the blurred lines they'd begun with.
"No use dwelling on the past, though. We just...need to figure out how we're going to work through this."
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"Me neither," she says, gaze dropping to their interlocked hands before flicking back up to his face. "But you're missing an important part of the equation, habibi."
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She squeezes his hand, as though to underscore that statement, reassurance for herself as much as for him. Overwhelming as this might be, it's not insurmountable. They'll get through this. They just need to figure out how.
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Two things clear, then, intertwined though they are. Complicated though their relationship might be - difficult as it sometimes has been - he's still the love of her life.