And for the first time in weeks, the knot in my chest loosens just a fraction.
CHAPTER 21
BETH
The weekends don’t happen on the boat anymore.
That’s how I notice it first—not all at once, just in little absences. No early alarms. No cooler to pack. No salt in my hair or sunburn on my shoulders by Sunday night. No Tony yelling about lines and fenders and who forgot the ice.
It feels like another lifetime ago.
Ethan and Sage are broken up. That part is real and final, even if the fallout still hangs in the air like smoke that won’t clear. But that doesn’t mean I’m breaking up with Sage.
Truthfully, I don’t want to.
She’s been… careful. Almost too careful. She never brings up Ethan unless I do, and even then she shuts it down fast, like touching a hot stove. I can see how much it costs her—how her jaw tightens, how her eyes go shiny for half a second before she pulls herself back together.
We’re both single now, and there’s something worse than heartbreak, I think.
It’s going home to an empty house and realizing no one’s waiting for you to tell them how your day went.
So we go out together. Not to party. Not to drink like we used to. Just… to not be alone.
We stick to happy hours only—the kind where everything’s half price and the lights are still on enough that you can see people’s faces. Sage has a way with bartenders. It’s not even aggressive flirting—just eye contact, a smile, a laugh at exactly the right moment. When the check comes, half the time the drinks aren’t even on it.
We still do spin class. Still sweat side by side. Still collapse on the mats afterward like we ran a marathon.
We only window-shop now. No bags. No purchases. Just touching fabrics we don’t buy and making jokes about the lives we’ll have someday.
We still splurge on iced coffees twice a week at lunch. That’s our thing. That’s non-negotiable.
One afternoon, we’re sitting outside with plastic cups sweating onto the table between us, and I finally say it.
“I know you’re hurting.”
She stiffens.
“I’m okay,” she says too quickly.
“I didn’t mean—” I shake my head. “I found closure. With him. I talked to him. I forgave him.”
Her eyes sharpen immediately.
“Are you?—”
“No,” I interrupt gently. “Not about you and Ethan. I mean… my situation.”
She relaxes a fraction, but there’s still something guarded there.
“My ex never loved me the way—” I hesitate, choosing my words carefully. “The way you and Ethan loved each other. Not even close. I’ve never experienced anything like that.”
Sage’s mouth tightens. I can almost hear the thoughts firing.
Then she reaches across the table and takes my hand.
“You will,” she says softly. “You will, Beth.”
I look at her.
