I smiled, a real one this time.“Now I stop framing this as something that’s happening to me.”
Mavis’s gaze sharpened.“Meaning?”
“Meaning I decide whether I want to be with a man who disappears when wanting me scares him,” I said evenly, “and whether I’m willing to keep proving I can stand beside him while he avoids standing with me.”
Dixie whistled softly.“That’s a line.”
“Yes,” I said.“And I didn’t draw it for him.”
We paid and stepped back into the cold.The wind cut sharper now, tugging at my coat, but I didn’t pull it tighter.I let it hit me.Let it wake me up.
Back at the office, the afternoon passed cleanly.Emails answered.Decisions made.I didn’t hover over my phone or glance at the door like he might suddenly appear.
He didn’t.
By the time dusk settled in, the windows reflecting my own silhouette back at me, something inside had quieted.Not numbed.Resolved.
I packed up and headed out, the elevator ride down silent except for the soft hum of descent.In the parking garage, people came and went without drama.
I didn’t look over at his car.
I waited until I made it home and parked inside my garage before pulling my phone from my coat pocket.I scrolled once, deliberately.
Then I typed.
I’m done waiting in silence.If you want me, we talk.If you don’t, say that too.I won’t fill in the blanks anymore.
I stared at the screen.
I wasn’t angry.I wasn’t pleading.I was clear.
I didn’t send it.At least not yet.Instead, I saved it and let it sit there, ready, but not reactive.Because the decision wasn’t about whether Creed would respond.It was about whether I would keep letting his silence decide when I mattered.
And for the first time in weeks, I knew exactly what I would do if he didn’t reach out by the end of the week.I would act on my terms, not to chase him, but to choose myself.
As I climbed out of the car, mid-November pressed around me, cold, honest, and unforgiving.
And for the first time in days, I welcomed it.
