Jessie’s POV
I was confused, I didn’t know what to do. If I left the group for good just to ignore one person I would be losing my longtime friends. Was Liam worth that? But in the same what would Evgeni think? Would he be angry that I was hanging out with my ex? Not just my ex but someone I knew I still had feelings for, or least the old him.

“Anna look I understand if you don’t want to talk to me right now but…”
“Go on,” Evgeni stood by waving his hand at me to continue as I finally left her a voice mail along with a bunch of missed calls.
“I am sorry, I didn’t mean to get angry at you. I just want to talk,” I was in tears by the end of it because I didn’t want to lose my best friend, “call me back.”

“Come here,” Evgeni put his arms and I walked right into his embrace, “it will be ok.”
“I don’t want you to go,” I mumbled into his chest.
“I know, I not want to either. But road trip, have to,” he kissed my forehead.

Evgeni refused to leave before I had left Anna a message so he knew I wouldn’t do anything drastic. He wanted me to leave the ball in her court so I could get on with my work. But that wasn’t going to happen. I was way too distracted for that.

‘She call?’ my phone flashed on the kitchen bench as I tried to make dinner.
‘No,’ I didn’t feel like talking much. I already missed having Evgeni around to help me make dinner and help with the dogs and it had only been a couple of hours.

There was no doubt in my mind that I loved Evgeni more than I loved Liam, that there was no way I would ever go back to him. I was more than happy to spend every day on the couch with him in his arms, just us and our dogs.

Evgeni’s POV
I was worried that with Liam being back around that maybe Jessie would begin to pull away but so far we were ok.

“You ok?” I laid down on the bed with my phone on speaker as I tried to convince Jessie to stop worrying and go to sleep.
“I miss you,” she sounded so sad.
“I miss you too.”

“You guys are pathetic,” James flopped onto the bed on the other side of the room.
“Shut up James,” she bit making me laugh.
“You just jealous,” I snatched my phone from the pillow and rolled over to face away from him.
“You just jealous,” he tried to mock me.
“Shut up,” I tossed my pillow over at him knocking him off the bed.
“Fuck off,” he tossed it back but I ignored him turning the phone off speaker and paying attention to Jessie.

“Jessie…” I was reluctant to ask her but I needed to know.
“Yeah?”
“What you think when see him?”
“Who Liam?”
“Yeah.”
“I was angry.”
“Why angry?” it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting to hear.
“Because I remembered how he treated me.”
“I never do that to you,” I was being honest too. I couldn’t imagine hurting Jessie. I loved her and there was no way I would ever do anything wrong by her.
“I know you won’t, that’s why I love you.”
“I love you too.”

“Get a room!” James grumbled.
“Jessie I have go James is baby, talk tomorrow.”
“Ok talk to you tomorrow.”

I guess Jessie being angry at him was a good thing but in a way I wanted her to be able to face him and not have an issue. If she could be around him and not feel anything for him then I knew we would always be ok rather than this up and down thing she had been trying to deal with.

Jessie’s POV
It felt wrong to be curling up in bed without Evgeni, but at least I had my two favorite dogs in the world to keep me warm.
“Come here Sebastian,” my boy crawled up the bed and nuzzled into my side.
“How you doing buddy?” I wrapped my arm around him as he rolled over onto his back and tossed his head back into the crook of my neck.
“Do you mind?” he was licking behind my ear and being a pest.

Jeffrey stood at the end of the bed with his head resting on the mattress staring at us.
“What? You want cuddles too?” he let out a long drawn out whine.
“Come on,” I patted the spot on the other side of me and he jumped up curling wedging me in the middle of the bed between the two of them.

“You guys good?” I laughed as they sighed in unison. But they weren’t interested in staying awake as they were both soon sound asleep while I was left staring at the roof.

My phone flashed on the bedside dresser. I picked it up to see a picture of Evgeni hugging his pillow. He looked so warn out, his eyes were big and tired but so adorable, his smile was so droopy, and his hair stuck up all over the place, if he was here I would be doing everything to make it stay down. But I loved him, probably even more when he was sound asleep and looking like a six year old boy.
‘Goodnight Jessie I love you’

I took a photo of me and the dogs lying in bed and set it the reply, ‘Goodnight, I love you xoxo’

I was getting anxious to get back to University, to get back to playing basketball and at the same time I was anxious to get it over and done with so I wasn’t stressed out. I wanted to be able to go to work and for it to just stay at work instead of come home with me and pile up on my dining table. But sooner or later everything was going to sort itself out and everything would be ok. Stress free and fun.