“Was that Nate?”
I nodded.
“He came to see what he was missing?”
“Something like that.”
“And did it make you see what you’d been missing?”
I shook my head. He took one step forward and I rushed toward him, folding myself into his open arms. “No. Not at all. It made me see that he and I may have had a long relationship, but it wasn’t very rooted. You know?”
“I’m sorry.”
I looked up at him. “Why are you sorry?”
“I don’t know why I said that.”
I laughed and wrapped my arms around him again. “Because you care about everyone and don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
“You make it sound noble. Really, it’s about me. How I want to be regarded by everyone.”
“That sounds like something to bring up in therapy.”
He laughed. “I guess I should’ve. Should we go back? Have a couple more sessions?”
“You know that therapy exists without me, right?”
“Things exist without you? This is new information to me.”
I shoved him, but he just pulled me closer with a low laugh. I took a deep breath and smiled. I was happy. Like completely, to my bones, happy. It had been a while since I could say that.
“Is it going to be hard for you to go back to Clovis tomorrow after spending time here? Do you wish you could just stay? Are you sad?”
His words, after my thoughts had been the exact opposite, sent a jolt of awareness through me. I was going back with him, but our days together were numbered. Then we’d be separated. His ability to move here hadn’t magically changed, and my ability to stay there hadn’t either.CouldI do long distance?
I straightened up and scratched at an itch that tickled the back of my neck. “I’m…” I looked up into his gorgeous eyes. “I’m not sad. I’m trying not to think about everything too much or analyze things.”
He raised one eyebrow because, even though we hadn’t known each other very long, he obviously understood some core things about me. “Really? And here I assumed you’d looked at everything from a million angles.”
“Nope,” I said. “Living in the moment.”
“I mean, a little thinking about the future wouldn’t be the end of the world,” he said, giving me some hope that he’d been thinking. That he had figured something out for us.
The city lights twinkled in the distance and a breeze picked up, making the flames in the firepit dance. Elijah carried a glass of wine across the rooftop to me. Selma, Raya’s fiancée, had put together an impromptu get-together since I was back in town, and even though it was after midnight, a handful of our friends showed up. We were eating finger foods and drinking wine and enjoying the view.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the glass as he sat down in the chair next to me.
“Tell us how you two met,” Selma asked, also sitting near the fire.
Elijah smiled. “We met because my brother was trying toget out of going to therapy and made a ridiculous bet in order to do so.”
“He bet that a therapist wouldn’t be able to tell if two strangers were sitting in front of her for couples therapy,” I clarified.
“Seriously?” Raya asked. “A therapist would be able to tell if two people claiming to be together were actually strangers.”
“Right?” I said. “That’s what I thought too.”
“You’re telling me she couldn’t?” Selma asked.
