I’m not broken.
I’m not lost.
I’m just standing at the edge of something I haven’t named yet.
Tomorrow, I’ll go back to Sarah’s. I’ll keep my word. I’ll show up without trying to steer the moment somewhere it isn’t ready to go. I’ll let whatever exists between us exist on its own terms.
And whatever Griffin knows, whatever history I haven’t been allowed to see clearly yet, will surface when it’s meant to. Not because I chase it down, but because I’m finally paying attention.
For tonight, that’s enough.
I stay where I am, lights off, house still, breath even. The urge to fix things still lives in my chest, but it doesn’t control me. Not right now.
The wrong kind of quiet brought me here.
This kind… I can sit with.
And for the first time in a long while, that feels like the beginning of something instead of the end.
Chapter Twenty
The Unspoken Truth
Sarah
Ispend the entire day pretending I’m fine.
I answer emails. I sit through a meeting where someone says brand alignment six times like it’s a normal phrase. I smile at a student who recognizes me from the last fundraiser and asks if we’re doing another one soon.
My phone stays face-down on my desk like it might bite me.
Because if I turn it over, I’ll see his name.
Or worse, I won’t.
By four thirty, I’ve rewritten the same press release intro three times and none of it sounds real. It’s all polished noise. Safe words. Clean edges. Nothing that could ever be used against me if someone screenshots it, repeats it, or twists it into something ugly.
That’s what I’m good at.
Control the narrative.
Spin the story.
Smile while your insides shake.
My office door is closed, but I can still hear voices outside. Staff heading out. A few stragglers complaining about parking. Someone laughing too loud at something that wasn’t probably funny.
Life is moving.
The problem is, mine feels like it paused last night.
Not when he showed up or when he looked at me like I was still the only thing in the room.
It paused at the moment I pulled back.
The moment I said no without saying no.
The moment I chose‘not yet’and trusted him to be the kind of man who could handle it.
