I grab it fast enough to embarrass myself.
Ruby:
Yes.
Home safe.
Thank you.
Short, polite, and very neutral.
It’s not enough.
I text again before the thought fully forms.
Me:
Good. Are you okay?
Another pause.
She replies:
Ruby:
I’m fine.
It was just dinner.
Justdinner.
She says that like we didn’t both feel the tension every time our knees brushed under the table.
Like she didn’t look at me the way she did in that candlelight. Like, I didn’t spend the entire meal trying not to reach across the table and pull her in.
I exhale slowly and type:
Me:
It wasn’t “just dinner.”
She doesn’t reply.
I stare at her typing bubble that flickers, disappears, returns, stops again.
Then finally:
Ruby:
Jaxon…
I told you.
This is complicated
Me:
It doesn’t have to be.
