“Seems like a good plan.”
Her lips press together in a small, bitter smile. “You’re impossible.”
“So I’ve been told.”
She takes a slow breath. “Emiliano will be here tomorrow.”
“I know.”
“That’s it?” she asks, voice shaking. “That’s all you have to say?”
“What else is there?”
She stares at me for a long time, and for a moment, I think she might give up. Leave. Walk out like she should have weeks ago.
But she doesn’t.
“Why are you like this?” she whispers.
I look at her then—really look. Her eyes are tired and red-rimmed, her hands clenched at her sides like she’s holding herself together by sheer force.
She looks older tonight. Not in the way of years, but in the way grief ages you.
“Because I have to be.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one you’ll get.”
Her voice rises and cracks. “I just want to understand, Nicolo! You make it so fucking hard to care about you. You push me, pull me, then act like I’m the one who’s lost my mind.”
I take a drink. “Maybe you have.”
“Stop it.” She steps closer. “Stop hiding behind that wall you built for yourself. I’m not asking you to fix anything. I just need to know why.”
I set the glass down, slow and deliberate. The sound of it against the table is louder than it should be.
“Because this…” I gesture between us. “…was never supposed to happen.”
Her chin trembles. “Then why did you let it?”
“I didn’t.”
“You did,” she insists. “Every time you looked at me like I was something you wanted but couldn’t have, every time you didn’t walk away, every time you touched me like it meant something?—”
“Stop.” The word comes out harsher than I mean it. “You don’t understand.”
“Thenmakeme understand,” she says, her voice breaking now. “Because I’ve been trying to, and all I get is silence.”
I drag a hand through my hair and look away. “Because I can’t love you.”
The words land between us like a gunshot. She freezes. I don’t take it back.
“I’m too broken,” I say, quieter now. “Too far gone for something like that.”
She laughs, but it’s not amusement. It’s disbelief, pain wrapped in sound.
“You think I didn’t know that?” She steps closer, tears already gathering in her eyes. “I never asked you to be perfect. I just wanted you to care.”
