I take a step nearer. Now we’re close enough that I can see the flicker of something behind her restraint.
Hope. Caution. Maybe both.
“I’ve spent a long time fixing things that were already halfway gone,” I say. “Things that weren’t going to stay, no matter what I did.”
She holds my gaze. “And you think I’m one of those things?”
“No,” I say. “That’s the problem.”
I hesitate, gulping air, fighting for the right words.
“If you don’t,” she says carefully, “then why are you treating me like I am?”
It’s easier than admitting I want you to stay.Because wanting something this much feels like handing over the one thing I’ve kept locked down. Because if you stay, I have to believe something different than I’ve believed my whole life.
I take another step.
Close enough now that the space between us feels like something I could cross.
“Because I don’t know how to do this without wrecking it,” I say.
Her eyes soften. “That’s not your decision to make alone,” she says.
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. Then I do the one thing I should’ve done the first time.
I move toward her. My hand closes around hers, warm and steady.
She doesn’t pull away.
“That thing you said,” I add, quieter now. “About keeping a distance.” Her fingers tighten slightly in mine. “You were right. But I don’t want to do that with you.”
The admission feels like stepping off something solid. Like there’s no going back to where I was before this.
“Yeah?” she says.
“Yeah.”
I close the distance. Now there’s no space left at all.
“I don’t want you leaving me,” I say. “I don’t want us to be one-time.”
Her breath catches, blue-green eyes shining like jewels.
“But you already know that,” I say voice dropping.
Her face is torn, eyes measuring me. “And tomorrow?” she asks.
“I’ll still want that.”
“And after that?”
I hold her gaze. “That’s the part we figure out together.”
I don’t offer her a fairytale. Or make promises I can’t keep. Just the truth. Without walls or predetermined outcomes.
“And you’re okay with that?” she asks.
“No,” I say. “But I’m more okay with trying than I am with letting you walk away because I was too scared to move.”
