I never expected he would say goodbye to me, too. Especially so callously.
My heart retreated to its home in my chest, and I knew this was my moment to leave. Landon had just started to cross the street when I darted down the pavement, dropping my half-full latte in the nearby trash can.
“Kira!” he sounded closer than I expected. “Kira, wait!”
Turning a corner, I prayed that I lost him. More importantly,I prayed that the nostalgic pang I felt at hearing him say my name went away.
A hand wrapped around my elbow, stopping me. “Kira Park?”
Okay, so those prayers were going unanswered today.
“Yeah,” I said because what else do you say when someone drops your full name like a bomb? It wasn’t exactly ahey, how’ve you been?—but then again, Landon and I never really needed that. We’d known each other too long, skipped right over the awkward small talk the first time around.
“I can’t believe I ran into you.” He sounded genuinely happy to see me.
Truthfully, I couldn’t believe it either.
Just a few days ago, Macey had practically crash-landed into our apartment, breathless and wild-eyed, shouting my name like the place was on fire. She’d been gone for three months on a road trip with her boyfriend and his sister, so I figured she was just excited to see me. But then she grabbed my hands, squeezed hard, and said, “Landon is in town.”
Once the nausea had left, I was able to explain the situation logically. Landon was born and raised in Chicago. He may have left when we were eighteen, but his parents never did. It was inevitable that he’d come home to visit them. In fact, he’d probably been home multiple times, and I never knew.
Thankfully, Chicago was big.
Not big enough.
Landon was clearly waiting for me to say something, but I had no idea what to respond with. Instead, I glanced at the hand still on my elbow, the one I used to love holding for hours on end. He noticed my stare and slowly released me.
“Yeah,” I said. Again.
You know, like a parrot.
I finally took a glance at his face, where his eyes were warmand wide open. He studied me just as much as I studied him, and I wondered what he noticed. That I finally learned how to do makeup besides a copious amount of pink blush? My fashion style had evolved, and I loved staying ahead of trends? Or maybe he noticed the things that haven’t changed. The diamond watch around my wrist that my parents got me for my sixteenth birthday? The mole on the underside of my jaw?
“How have you been?”
I blinked, suddenly wishing I hadn’t thrown away my latte. Maybe that was the moment from the movies destined for me: throwing a drink in a dumb man’s face.
“Fine.” And, because I was polite to people who don’t deserve it, I added, “How have you been?”
He didn’t answer immediately, probably because this was an incomprehensible moment.How have you been since you abandoned me, Landon? You look like you’ve been happy. Like you sailed off into the abyss after breaking my heart.
That was the piece that was incomprehensible to me. How the man I loved for years could leave me behind and now act like we were two acquaintances catching up at the dessert bar during a high school reunion.
“I just moved back to Chicago,” he replied.
“Like…permanently?”
“Yes, that’s what moving implies.”
He laughed softly, and something stuttered in my chest.
“Why would you do that?”
My voice came out icier than I even knew was possible, and he winced. Good.
Landon took a small step forward, and I took one back. He glanced down, and I would say he deflated, but his shoulders looked too muscular to be capable of that.
“I…” he started, then sharply changed direction. “Because this is my home.”
