COOPER
My boyfriend who died was my world. Losing that changed me. I loved him in ways…
COOPER
That love turned to this heartbreak I can’t describe. I don’t have it in me to survive another heartbreak.
COOPER
So what am I afraid of losing? Everything.
DR. JAYLEN MAZUR
So you do the rational thing and break your own heart because it’s easier…
COOPER
I don’t like your tone right now.
COOPER
And I didn’t do this. The other guy did this. He’s the one who ran away.
DR. JAYLEN MAZUR
Because you pushed him away?
COOPER
Because it took me six years to admit what I knew all along.
DR. JAYLEN MAZUR
That’s a long time for someone to wait.
COOPER
He never said he had a problem waiting. He always said he understood.
DR. JAYLEN MAZUR
What did his eyes say? Every time you unintentionally hurt him? Every time he came to you? Every time he left?
Cooper thought back to the last time he’d seen Nico. The image of him crying beside the door before he left haunted him in his nightmares. He’d spent almost every night since then trying to reason with himself if there was anything he could have done differently. Then, he thought back to the times before that. The way Nico looked at him after the necklace incident. The way Nico looked at him when they fought in the hotel room about Luke. The way Nico looked at him when he caught the rookie in the shrine.
Nico’s eyes told many stories, all with the same ending. And it’d been going on for a lot longer than Cooper realized.
COOPER
Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?
DR. JAYLEN MAZUR
Tough love is love.
COOPER
I don’t know that’s true. My mother is the tough love kind of woman. She never loved me for who I am. Only for who she designed me to be.
