Jamie clears his throat. “You’re really leaving.”
Her eyes flash. “You say that like I would lie about that. Like it’s some kind of betrayal.”
He shrugs. “Maybe it is.”
She blinks, caught off guard. “You can’t guilt me for trying to start over.”
“I’m not,” Jamie says. “I just—shit, Chloe, you’ve got both of us all twisted up, and you’re acting like that means nothing.”
Her mouth opens, then closes. “That’s not fair.”
“Maybe not,” he admits. “But it’s true.”
I run a hand through my hair. “Look, we know about the team stuff. The rumors. You quitting. You moving. Fine. But you don’t have to vanish like this.”
Her voice cracks just slightly. “You both made it really easy to want to disappear.”
That hits. Hard.
Jamie goes still, expression unreadable. “That’s what you think?”
She glares.
The air thickens between us. Rain starts tapping at the window. Jamie slides off the counter and takes a slow step toward her. “Then tell me what we’re supposed to do with that.”
She backs up a little. “You don’t do anything. You forget about me.”
“Can’t.”
Her jaw tightens. “Jamie—”
“Can’t,” he says again, firmer this time. “You think we haven’t tried?”
I rise from the couch, my pulse uneven. “He’s right. We’ve been trying to do the decent thing, and you’re not making it any easier.”
She glares at me. “I didn’t ask you to.”
“Yeah,” I say softly. “That’s the problem.”
For a moment, no one says anything. Then she shakes her head, voice trembling now. “You don’t get it. I can’t stay here. Not after everything. Not with people whispering and—”
Jamie cuts in, voice low. “They whisper because they care about the wrong things. You care because you think you owe them something.”
She presses her palms to her eyes. “Please don’t do this right now.”
Jamie looks at me, then back at her. “You said you didn’t want to leave thinking I hated you.”
Her breath catches. “Yeah.”
“Then hear me when I say I don’t.”
Something breaks in her face—relief, disbelief, maybe both. And I know right then that I can’t stand another second of watching her like this.
I step closer. “You’re not the only one who’s messed up over this, Chloe.”
She looks at me then and something flickers there, sharp and scared. “Don’t.”
Jamie’s voice softens. “He’s not wrong.”
