Nathan scoffs and takes a step back from the bar, his tonebitter now. “Yeah, clearly. Looks like I was just warming the bench until the star showed up.”
Cole’s posture stiffens, but he doesn’t rise to the bait. Not yet.
“Nathan, please don’t,” I say softly.
But Nathan doesn’t stop. “You should’ve just said you weren’t over him. Would’ve saved us both a lot of time.”
“I tried.” I whisper. “Tried to let go and start over. When he came back, everything I’d buried resurfaced. I didn’t see it coming. I wish I had.”
Cole’s eyes flick to me again—his jaw tightens—but he stays quiet, letting me speak.
Nathan shakes his head, eyes sharp with frustration. “I met your whole family, Kenna. Yourwhole family. Except the one person who matters most. And now I get why. Deep down, you knew this would happen. You were never going to let me get close.”
His words cut deep.
Cole shifts slightly beside me, as if he’s not sure whether to intervene or give me space. But I can feel the energy flowing off him.
Nathan exhales a hard breath and throws some cash on the bar. “Good luck, Kenna,” he mutters, glancing sideways at Cole. “Hope you’ve got more than timing on your side.”
He leaves without waiting for a reply.
The silence he leaves behind feels sharp and strangely heavy. Like something final just happened.
I stand there staring at the drink in front of me. I never even touched it.
Cole clears his throat. “I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”
I glance at him, and my voice is quieter than I intend. “You didn’t.”
He shifts closer, his voice soft. “I wasn’t going to come up. I just…the way he looked at you didn’t sit right with me.”
I don’t respond right away, and when I do, it comes out barelyabove a whisper. “Why are you always showing up when I’m trying to move on from you?”
His expression falters. For a moment, he doesn’t have an answer.
Then, finally: “Because I can’t forget you either.”
Neither of us says a word. We just stand there while the bar hums around us. Laughter, clinking glasses, bits of conversation drift by, somehow muted. It feels like we’re cut off from everything except the silence hanging between us.
Finally, I pull in a breath and nod toward the door. “I should get going.”
He nods, stepping back to give me space, but his eyes linger on mine, unreadable. “I didn’t mean to mess things up for you.”
“You didn’t.” My voice is quiet. Honest. “They were already a mess.”
We walk to the door together in silence. Outside, the air is cool against my skin, the night sky deep and endless. He stops near the curb, hands stuffed in his pockets.
“Thanks for checking on me,” I say, hugging my arms around myself. “Even if it was…complicated.”
“Always,” he says, and there’s something final in the way he says it. Something that wraps around my ribs and won’t let go. “Goodnight, Kenna.”
I nod. “Goodnight, Cole.”
He looks at me for a moment longer, like there’s something else on his mind, like he might offer to walk me to my car. But then he just turns around and walks away.
I stand there for a beat, staring after him, heart heavy in my chest. Then I pull out my keys and make my way to the car, trying to ignore the sting behind my eyes.
The drive home is quiet. No music, just the faint trill of the tires on the road and the soft click of the turn signal at the empty intersections. I keep replaying the night in my head. Nathan’s voice. The look on Cole’s face. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. I just know I feel everything at once.
