“Then let’s change that.”
Ping. Another message.
“I just like you, is all.”
“I want to see you. Know you. Understand you. I find your mind beautiful.”
I’m dying. Right here, in this booth, I’m bleeding out from the inside. This was our bar. Our sanctuary. Now it’s a battlefield.
He’s falling for me, but it’s a version of me I don’t recognize. One he doesn’t either. That’s fire. Someone is going to get burnt.
I glance at the screen again and shake my head.
“It scares me that you want these things… when you haven’t even heard my voice or felt my skin. You want a fantasy.” I send then straight after I send another. Fast…
“And fantasies don’t bleed. But I do.”
He walks toward me before I can brace for impact. I shove my phone between my thighs and lock it, the messages burning through the fabric of my jeans.
“Penn,” he says. “Can I---”
“You don’t need to ask to sit,” I snap. “It’s your bar after all.”
“Our bar,” he corrects.
I slide the file toward him, my palm covering it. “This says otherwise.”
His eyes drop to the hand still wearing my wedding ring. His is gone. Another gash. Another wound.
“Ah. Yes. It does.” His eyes stay hovering over my wedding ring.
“Let me—”
I cut him off with a raised hand. “Explain? Now you want to explain. Afterweeksof silence. After walking out like I was a bad chapter you didn’t want to finish?”
He opens his mouth. I don’t give him time.
“You walked away fromme, but you also walked away from her our baby. And I’ve been screaming inside ever since.”
Tears push at the corners of my eyes. I force them back. They will not have me today.
“We both drowned,” he says. “Under words we never said. I chose to swim for the surface.”
That breaks me more than anything. He swam. He swamaway.
I tap my foot, rage rising. “You kissed my cheek, Blake. And you left. No warning. No goodbye. No reason. Just… gone.”
His face pales. His hand reaches across the table.
I jerk mine away. “Sorry, but no.”
Gathering my things, I stand, letting the silence thunder between us.
I look around one last time, the air thick with memories, the ghosts of who we used to be. I walk out the door and into the street, grief. It follows me like perfume.
And inside, my heart whispers the name he used to say like it meant something
Penn.
