“You know…” Carolyn says, biting into her dumpling. “I always thought you’d end up with Landon.”
The words are said casually, but they land like a stone in a still pond.
“What?” My hand goes still halfway to my mouth.
Carolyn shrugs. “I don’t know. You were always together. And he always looked at you like he wanted more.”
I stare at the takeout container in my lap, appetite suddenly gone.
I think of Landon in first year, knocking on my door every morning with coffee. Of library sessions that bled into midnight. Of how he always made space for me, always stayed a little longer than necessary. And how I told myself it was just kindness. That I wasn’t responsible for what he didn’t say.
Sophie speaks up, softly. “He brought you up. In Cabo.”
My stomach knots. “Did he?”
She nods. “He just said he misses your friendship. That he knows…it’s not going to happen. But he’d still like to patch things up before graduation.”
Something shifts inside me—a pang that isn’t quite guilt, but still enough to sting.
I remember the last time I saw him—just before break, outside my dorm. We’d stood there beneath the overhang, wrapped in the kind of sort that stretches between people who used to know each other well. Our conversation had been polite, careful. But it wasn’t the words that stuck in my mind. It was the space between them. The things he didn’t say.
“I do miss him,” I finally admit. “He was a good friend.”
Neither of them says anything for a moment. Then Carolyn reaches over and plucks a dumpling from my box.
“Well,” she says. “Text him.”
Sophie leans her head on my shoulder. “You’ve got, like, two months left—don’t waste them on what-ifs.”
There’s a tug in my chest. The pull of something unresolved.
I glance at my phone on the floor beside me.
Maybe Sophie’s right. Maybe not everything can be mended, but I’d still rather try than wonder.
A knock at the door cuts through my thoughts, and I already know who it is.
Of course he would come upstairs to collect me personally.
I let out a breath and push myself up off the floor, brushing crumbs from my shirt as I stand and cross the room. When I open the door, I find Nathaniel leaning against the frame like he has nowhere else in the world to be. His smile is all charm, but his expression shifts the second he sees me—eyes warming, lips parting like he can’t quite help it.
“Hey, baby,” he murmurs, pressing a soft kiss to my cheek.
Behind me, Sophie sighs dreamily. “He’s unreal.”
“Evening, ladies,” he says, glancing past me to Sophie and Carolyn.
Carolyn mock-swoons. “Liv, your man shows up looking like a luxury ad.” She looks him up and down before asking, “Is that coat cashmere?”
Sophie barks a laugh. “Looks like it to me.”
Nathaniel chuckles, shaking his head. “Thank you both for taking such good care of Olivia tonight. I hate to break things up, but I’m afraid I’ve reached my limit. I need her back.”
Sophie fans herself dramatically. Carolyn just grins.
I start to protest. “Wait. I should at least help clean up, and my?—”
“We’ve got it,” Carolyn says, already scooping up my phone and purse from the coffee table. She presses them into my hands with a knowing smile.
