“I don’t want to be the guy who makes you sad.” He kissed the top of her head. “I think we can fix this. I need to go back to therapy again. Last night I discovered I have some things I need to work on, but right now you have Lily’s bachelorette, and I have three live segments this week. As soon as I am done, I’m off to Nate’s canoe trip. After that, we have the first two weeks of August with no other commitments. Can you give me time to get my bearings? There’s so much I need to tell you, but it’s too big a conversation for an elevator ride. Please don’t end us yet. Hit the pause button. And after we get through our obligations, give me an afternoon or maybe a day so we can discuss a different ending to our story.”
“Like when Ross and Rachel took a break?”
“Nothing like that. Do you remember the week before we started dating a decade ago?”
“No.” Avery shook her head and let out a tearful snort.
“I ran into you in the woods and quoted Robert Frost.” Miles eyed the elevator’s floor counter. They were only halfway down, moving more slowly than last night. “I quoted the first two lines of ‘The Road Not Taken,’” he said. “You answered with the ending of ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.’”
She nodded and let out a trace of a giggle. “You corrected me and said that wasn’t the same poem.”
“You told me you didn’t care because ‘Stopping by the Woods’ was better.”
He had loved that Avery hadn’t been afraid to be herself. He still did.
“I remember you said when you were little, your mom used to read you that poem and you thought the ‘miles to go’ part was about you.” She refolded the handkerchief she’d been clutching all this time. “So cute.”
He chuckled. She remembered.
“Both those poems are about taking pauses and the difference it made.” Miles was so sure this was one of his genius moments, if she bought into what he was saying. “This is us taking a Robert Frost moment. One that will make a difference. Think of it as a pause to consider our path. And after the pause, if you still think we won’t work, I’ll respect your decision.”
Not great, but it was the best elevator speech he could come up with on such short notice. And the twist in her lips told him she was considering it.
“No sleeping with other people,” she said, going back toFriendsand probably Trent.
“Of course not,” he said. “I’ll go tantric. A sexual version of when Aaron Rodgers took that darkness retreat.”
Avery giggled, and he told himself to savor it. He wouldn’t hear her laugh for a week. Besides, her right eye twinkled, a sign she didn’t want to end it.
“Text me all you want,” he said. “If we want to talk, we call or FaceTime. But let’s wait until we can be together to discuss the big stuff.”
She concentrated on the display above the elevator buttons, watching the floors slowly tick down.
“Avery.” He cupped her chin and ran his thumb along her cheek. “Whatever happens, I do not want to walk through the world as ghosts ever again.”
She nodded, and he wasn’t sure if she agreed not to be ghosts or to his plan.
“In the grand scope of our lives, this pause will be a tiny blip,” he said. “But it has the potential to be the most important, most meaningful, and most mature moment you and I have ever experienced.”
“I’d like us to have that,” she said. “Especially the mature and meaningful parts.”
The elevator chimed. They’d reached the lobby. As they hugged goodbye, he took a breath of magnolia, imprinting the moment for himself. She let go and gazed up at him. He took her wistful smile as her being okay with their pause.
The doors still hadn’t opened. Maybe they were stuck. It wouldn’t be the worst thing.
“Miles, I have to go,” she said. But she didn’t wriggle out of his arms. She stayed put.
He leaned in and whisked his lips over hers.
“Pepper,” he said. “Next time we’re together, I promise to be a better man than the one who wants to kiss you right now. Can I kiss you anyway?”
She nodded and he slowly kissed her, building the intensity until the elevator doors whooshed open. No one kissed him like she did. It had to be love, but he didn’t say it.
When he let go, Symona Beauvais and Hazel Matheson stepped into the elevator. Hazel raised an eyebrow at Miles. Avery scurried out and waved goodbye. Miles stood in his pajamas and bare feet next to a model and a rock star but kept his eyes on Avery’s beautiful face as the doors closed. His last thought, as he blew her a kiss, was that he’d turned her eyes gray and dull, and he’d do everything in his power to make them shine again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Avery
