I see. You are attached?
I don’t know how or why I let it happen.
I know it’s stupid.
I knew this was temporary.
And the conversation with you last night made it clear why it has to be this way.
Oh. I’m sorry.
No. It was a good talk.
I needed to hear it because I was trying to talk myself into how this could work, but you’re right.
We don’t live in that kind of world yet.
Family dinners, friends, dates, events… So many things I have to think about.
I’ve been lying to my best friend in the world and that’s killing me.
I couldn’t do that forever.
She thinks I’m with Callum, but she’s noticed the way the others are around me.
The way Jax looks at me, the way we hold a hug for longer than normal.
The lingering gazes and brush of the hands.
This is for the best. I didn’t think so when I decided to leave, but it gets better.
You decided? You didn’t have a contract?
Three dots appeared, then stopped.
“Everything ok back there?”
“What? Huh? Yea. Just talking to a friend.”
“At this hour? You young kids.”
“She’s catching a flight.”
“You should give her my number when she gets back. Trying to build my portfolio.”
I laughed. “I will, but she lives in France.”
“Oh.” She sighed.
My phone buzzed. I looked at her message and had to read it twice.
I think I’m the reason they have a contract. We thought we could all be happy together and were for months, but then things started getting more serious. Christmas was coming up and my parents wanted to meet the man who’d been occupying so much of my time. I brought Knox home with me and the others said they were fine with it, but I knew they weren’t. And then, like parents do, they started talking about marriage and kids and it just put everything into perspective. I had always wanted those things, and I wasn’t going to get it with them. It took another month for me to realize I had to make an impossible decision. So I left. While I loved them, and they loved me, it just couldn’t work. They didn’t fight very hard, because they understood and they didn’t want to keep those things from me.
Betty stopped outside of my address. “Home sweet home, darling.”
“Home sweet home.” I looked up at the apartment building. If this was home, then why did I feel like that’s what I just left?
“Fares on me this time.”
