The silence does what it always does with Manny. It loosens something in me. Truth seeps out before I can stop it.
“It hurts,” I whisper.
My voice cracks on the word. Embarrassingly small. Like it belongs to someone younger.
Manny’s expression softens. “Yeah,” he says quietly. “I can see that.”
“I didn’t think it would,” I admit. “Not like this.”
He nods once. “You lost someone important.”
I shake my head, weak and automatic. “He wasn’t supposed to be.”
Manny doesn’t smile. Doesn’t argue. He just tilts his head and looks at me with that steady, patient truth I’ve never been able to dodge.
“Sweetheart,” he says, “you don’t ask a man to sleep on your couch. You don’t let him walk into chaos with you. You don’t let him kiss you…”
My breath hitches.
“…unless he matters.”
I blink hard, but it’s too late. Tears burn anyway. Hot and traitorous.
I press my lips together, trying to hold myself together.
Manny watches me for a long beat.
Then he stands. “I’ll give you some time.”
The door closes behind him.
And for the first time since Cam left, I let myself cry.
I curl onto the couch without thinking, knees tucked in, and reach for the sweatshirt draped over the armrest. Cam’s. I stole it weeks ago and never gave it back. Oversized. Soft.
I pull it around me and breathe in.
Clean laundry. Cedar. Something steady underneath it all.
My chest tightens.
I shouldn’t have let myself rely on him.
You knew better. You always know better. Don’t need anyone. Don’t lean.
I bury my face in the collar and whisper into the fabric, “I miss you.”
The words don’t echo. They just sit there. Honest. Small.
My ex’s voice surfaces the way it always does when I’m vulnerable. Sharp. Smug. Certain. You can’t tell a good man from a bad one. You always fall for the wrong type. You make everything about yourself.
Those words have lived in my body for years.
I let that wound call the shots with Cam.
I sit up abruptly, breath uneven.
Because Cam never asked for more than I gave him. He never took advantage of my fear. Never tried to use my name or my image or my vulnerability.
