"Physically? Yeah." Brian walked in, glanced around at the tiny student desks, then folded himself into one with a grimace. He looked ridiculous. A grown man crammed into a seat designed for a nine-year-old. "Otherwise? Not really."
"Brian—"
"I know you don't want to hear this. And I know it's not my place." He met my eyes. "But I was there that night. At the bar. When that woman cornered him."
I went still.
“Shane hooked up with her once, maybe a year ago. It feels like ages ago now. I don’t know. Anyway, she's been trying to get his attention ever since. Showing up at events, messaging him constantly." Brian shook his head. "That night at the bar, she came up to him while he was getting drinks. She put her hands on him before he could stop her. He shut it down in about ten seconds flat. He told her he was with someone. Serious."
"The photo?—"
"Was taken before he pushed her away. Someone got the angle that made it look like something it wasn't." Brian leaned forward, the desk creaking under his weight. "I watched him tell her no. I watched him walk away. And I watched him spend weeks falling apart over you."
My throat was tight. "Why didn't he tell me about her?"
"Because there was nothing to tell. She's nobody. A mistake from his past that wouldn't take a hint." Brian shrugged. "He probably should've mentioned it. But he didn't think it mattered. Because to him, it didn't."
I stared at my hands. The healing burns. The red pen stains that never fully washed out.
"He deleted all his social media," Brian said quietly. "And asked Captain Rodriguez to be taken off the calendar. Permanently."
"What?"
"He said he was done being that guy. The headline. The fantasy." Brian stood, the desk scraping against the floor. "He's trying to be someone different, Maya. Someone who stays. He'sdoing it for you, Maya. All of it. Because he wants to be the man you deserve, and because both of you need someone who stays.”
I didn't trust my voice.
"I'm not here to guilt you," Brian said. "You had reasons to run. I get it. But he's the best man I know. And he's been waiting for someone to see that for a long time." He headed for the door, then paused. "Don't make him wait forever. Okay?"
He left.
I sat alone in my temporary classroom, Brian's words echoing in the silence.
‘He's trying to be someone different. Someone who stays.’
Brian’s words replayed in my head.
‘She came up to him while he was getting drinks. She put her hands on him before he could stop her. He shut it down in about ten seconds flat.’
Ten seconds.
The photo had been taken in ten seconds.
‘He told her he was with someone serious.’
Serious. Shane had called us serious. To a beautiful woman who was pressing herself against him at a bar, he'd said he was with someone. With me.
And I'd looked at a grainy photo and assumed the worst. Because that's what I do. Because assuming the worst feels safer than hoping for the best. Because every time I've let myself believe in something good, it's been ripped away.
‘He deleted all his social media. Asked to be taken off the calendar. Permanently.’
I kept circling back to that. The calendar that had made him famous. The Instagram that connected him to thousands of women who wanted him. Gone. All of it.
I never asked. He’d done it anyway.
‘He's trying to be someone different. Someone who stays.’
I drove through Queens. Past Shane's firehouse, where I slowed down but didn't stop. The bay doors were closed. I wondered if he was inside. If he'd seen my car. If he was thinking about me the way I couldn't stop thinking about him.
