“You don’t owe me explanations about your personal life,” she replies. “We agreed to keep things professional, remember?”
“Is that what we’re doing right now? Being professional?”
“What exactly are you implying?” She frowns.
“I’m saying you’re running away from me, like a child.” I step closer, lowering my voice so only she can hear. “And I want to know why.”
“I wasn’t running, and I’m not a child.” Her voice is clipped, cheeks flushed. She stands her ground, shoulders squared. “I was just exploring. Is that not allowed?”
“Of course,” I agree, not wanting to make this situation any worse. “But most people explore at a normal pace, not with a record-shattering hundred-meter dash.”
She narrows her eyes and crosses her arms at her chest. “Fine. You want honesty? I felt awkward standing alone while you had a cozy reunion with your ex-fiancée. You could’ve excused yourselfafterour conversation ended. But no, you ignored me and left me there like a prop. Not a great feeling.”
“Look, I handled that poorly.”
Her eyes narrowed and lips pressed thin in disdain. “As I said, you don’t owe me an explanation. I just want you to know I didn’t like it. And please don’t get the wrong idea after today, I’m not looking to rekindle anything that happened in the past. I don’t want you to get your hopes up that?—”
“I’m sorry, Minji.” I cut her off because I don’t want to hear her end things before it even begins.
“I don’t want your sorrows…” She sighs deeply. “Besides, Grayson already filled me in on the highlight reel. You and Vanessa were together for eight years and?—”
“Is that judgment I hear?”
“Of course not. I’m not in any position to judge anyone. It’s just…” She pauses. “In my line of work, Aaron, the most devoted couples in the world eventually discover they’re incompatible. I’m not implying yours was doomed from the start, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t validate my entire professional philosophy. It’s not a criticism, it’s just statistics.”
Now she’s all attorney. “So, what?” I can’t keep the edge out of my voice. “You’re going to analyze my failed engagement and add it to the file you’re keeping on human folly?”
She gives a huff of laughter. “You said it, not me.”
“I’m not a case study, Minji.”
“Neither am I, but you do it, too. Isn’t that why you are shadowing me? What’s that American saying… If it isn’t the kettle calling the teapot black? Or something like that.”
I fight back the urge to laugh because what’s happening right now is no laughing matter. “You think I write about love because I don’t understand it?”
She hesitates. “I think you write about it because you want it to be real. But you also want to control the narrative.”
I look at her, really look, and notice the tight set of her mouth, the determined avoidance in her eyes. I realize how much effort she spends not letting herself be the protagonist in anyone’s story, especially her own. I want to right all the wrongs of her past relationships if she lets me. “You’re doing it again.” I sigh.
“Doing what?”
“Using other people’s pain to reinforce your walls.” I make my voice gentle, so she can’t mistake this for an attack. “Yes, Vanessa and I were engaged. Yes, it ended badly. That doesn’t mean every relationship is doomed from the start.”
She pivots to face me fully, the wall at her back, and her eyes are as dark as the city beyond the glass. “I never said they were doomed from the start. Just inevitably from somewhere in the middle. It happens more often than people think. You’ve had a failed engagement, and I had a failed relationship. Obviously, going into those relationships, we never thought breaking up would be the outcome. But it was the outcome nonetheless.” She holds my gaze.
“And how do you think we move forward from that?” Yeah, I’m laying it on thick because I know what I want, and I’ll be damned if I let her slip through my fingers again.
“We?” Her eyebrows come together. “There is nowe. What the hell are you talking about? No, don’t answer that. I’mconvinced romance writers see a connection where there’s only proximity.”
I step even closer, close enough to catch the subtle scent of her perfume. I can’t help but smile.
“Proximity doesn’t create connections.” I’m struggling to keep my voice even. “But it does reveal them.”
She looks away, focusing on something over my shoulder. I can almost see her mentally retreating, building those walls brick by brick.
“There’s already a connection between us, Minji.”
“What I know,” she starts, “is that you’re still hung up on your ex-fiancée. I saw your face and your body language when she walked in. Whatever you think is happening between us is just?—”
