~Evric's POV~
It had been a week and few days since Zayn and I had our heart-to-heart conversation, the brutal, necessary reckoning in the aftermath of the drug's chaos. Looking back, I could say things had literally gotten better between us. The chasm of fear and resentment had been replaced by an open road of unfettered affection.
We talked about everything now; not just surface matters, but real, deep communication where I sought his opinion on business decisions, and he felt safe enough to share his worries without filtering them.
That partnership, that true sharing of advice, was what I had always craved. The biggest change, though, was in the bedroom. After following Evans's implicit advice to prioritize care over consumption, things had settled into a beautiful equilibrium.
