She’d danced her way through the streets of Copenhagen once before. She’d made headlines and risked her heart. It’d ended with inertia and abandonment, and a bench in Tivoli that still smelled vaguely of chestnuts and regret. Now this. A ring wasn’t just a promise.
She didn’t wait for him to step out of the shower and explain. To say he wanted to build the future around her like a house made of chance and hope. Fear had much better reflexes than hope, so she grabbed her hoodie and the scarf she’d bought him, and swathed herself in both before she vanished into the chilly Danish late afternoon.
63
NOT THE BENCH AGAIN. NOT THE BENCH AGAIN
Nate
“The ring was supposed to be a maybe-someday. She thought it was a deadline.”
He knew she was gone the second he stepped out of the bathroom.
The air felt wrong. Still but charged, like lightning had struck the room and left a silence behind. The steam was still curling from the doorframe, clinging to the windows, and his bare feet rasping as he crossed the bedroom carpet, towel slung low on his hips. She wasn’t here.
"Holly?" he called.
The bed was rumpled. Her crutches were gone, and so was the hoodie she’d worn for two days straight. And there, on top of the covers, was the pale blue box he’d been thinking about for days.
Open. Ring glittering like a menace.
His breath caught.“Fuck!”
He was moving before the thought finished, dragging clothes over skin still wet, boots without socks, jacket without zipping. No hesitation. No second-guessing. His body ran on panic while his mind spiraled in silence.
She’d found it andshe ran.And he knew exactly where.Tivoli.Not because she liked it. Not because it was beautiful. But because pain had muscle memory. She’d been left there once. Of course she’d go back.
The cab couldn’t get him there fast enough. The city blurred. His fists clenched and unclenched in his lap, nails digging into his palms, his heart pounding like it was sprinting ahead of him. When he reached the park, he paid for his ticket, bolted through the gates, and started searching. Because he didn’t know which bench she’d be on, but he wasn’t going to stop until he fucking found it.
Suddenly, there she was.
A bench right in front of the Concert Hall, in the same place where they set up the outdoor ice rink each winter. The place where he’d bet they’d set up the stage for the Viennese waltz performances she’d been part of back then. The contrast was so sharp that it hit him harder than any cross-check he’d ever taken.
He’d loved this place as a kid. He’d skated on that rink and dreamed big. Hoping that if he just worked hard enough, one day he might get drafted into the NHL. And that’s when he realized that this was the place where his dreams had been born… and where hers had been crushed.
Holly had the scarf she’d bought him around her neck, twisted like armor. She sat as still as a statue, as if holding her own pieces together with nothing but breath. Nate approachedslowly, rounding in front of her so that she’d see him coming and he wouldn’t startle her. He didn’t say anything, he just watched her.
And then she spoke. Her voice was soft, as though she’d known he’d come find her here. Like she wasn’t even surprised.
“This is where I got left.”
He scooted closer, not touching her, just wanting her to know he was there. Present, and putting himself on the line to show it.
“You’re not being left,” he promised, his brows pulled down with sadness.
“No.” Her voice was brittle. “I’m doing the leaving.”
Her words landed like a gut punch, winding him. His throat ached because he could hear the absolute finality in her tone. “Why?”
“Because I believed it last time. Iletmyself want forever. I let myself think it could be different. And he broke me.”
He tried.God, he tried. “I’m not him,” he pointed out, feeling a sting behind his eyes that threatened to unravel him right in front of her.
She exhaled, sharp and uneven. “I know. But I’m still me.”
He reached for her, lifting his hand like an invitation.
She didn’t take it. Instead, her fingers twisted in the ends of the scarf. The one she’d bought him just yesterday.A lifetime ago.
