Another minute passed and I pulled out my phone, checking the message thread. The location drop sat there, clear as day.The fountain. Noon. Exactly what we agreed to.
I double-checked anyway, making sure the location I’d sent was correct, but it was. Frustration bubbled up from deep inside. It was possible she was just late, but after how many times we’d planned to meet and she’d had to cancel, it was also possible that she had flaked out again.
When I looked up again, my heart stopped.
Katestood across the path, staring at me like she couldn’t quite make sense of what she was seeing. For a few long, drawn-out moments, neither of us moved, but then I took a few steps closer to her on autopilot, the cylinders in my brain completely misfiring.
“Kate? What are you doing here?” I asked.
She blinked hard. “What areyoudoing here?”
There was something strange in her expression. Confusion, sure, but something else too. Something that ran much deeper and, strangely, looked a little like fear. Like someone who’d been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
“I’m, uh,” I hesitated before I finally managed to finish the sentence. “I’m waiting for someone.”
Her mouth pressed into a thin line. “Me too.”
Well, yeah. I guess that makes sense. She’s from here, after all.Kate had a whole life here. A life outside of me, outside of Chicago, forced engagements, and stolen kisses.
“I’m waiting for my…” I trailed off, then forced the words out after clearing my throat. “I’m waiting for my girlfriend.”
I hated the way it sounded. Fuck, I even hated how wrong it felt to say itto her, but Kate just nodded, like she’d half-expected me to say that.
“Oh. Right.” She swallowed, her eyes darting this way and that, but she sighed and then looked back at me. “I’m meeting someone too, but I’m just a little late. He must’ve left already.”
I glanced around again, but something about this suddenly felt really,reallyoff. “You were meeting him here?”
She frowned. “Yes.”
“In this exact spot?”
Her hesitation was brief, but real. She chewed her lip for a second before she sighed again, jamming her hand through her hair and shaking her head. “Yes. Yeah. Here. Definitely here. He sent me a pin.”
She pulled out her phone, turning the screen toward me, and there it was. Seeing that message thread onher phonehit me like a physical blow. The layout. The wording. The timestamps. The location pin sitting right there in the middle of the screen.
It was horribly, unmistakably familiar. In that moment, my entire world tilted sideways. My stomach dropped to somewhere near my shoes and realization slammed into me, fast and absolute.
At the exact same moment, Kate’s expression changed. Confusion shattered into understanding and everything clicked into place. She dropped her phone and it hit the pavement with a dull, traitorousclackthat seemed way too loud for the middle of a crowded park.
I took another step toward her before I even realized I was moving. My head felt full of static. Thoughts crashed into each other too fast to sort through, but underneath it all was something hotter. A very deep pinch of anger that practically blinded me.
“Emma?” I asked, my voice coming out low and tight.
Kate went pale, suddenly looking so completely drained it was like someone had pulled the color right out of her.
“CB?” she croaked, her eyes wide.
And that was it, the confirmation I hadn’t even realized I’d been waiting for. This hadn’t just been some weird twist of fate where she’d picked up a phone someone had dropped—or whatever other explanations I’d been desperately trying to come up with.
Kate was Emma. Emma was Kate.
My brain rejected that truth outright. Just flat out refusing to process the information.
Kate made a strangled sound, stared at me for another beat, then bent over to scoop up her phone, spun on her heels, and ran. Actually fucking ran. Sprinting across the path like some deranged, psychopathic serial killer was after her.
“Kate!” I barked.
People turned. A jogger nearly collided with me as I pushed forward, but I didn’t stop. “Kate!”
