“Then why are you still sitting here?”
The question hits me like lightning. Why am I still here? What’s actually stopping me?
“I have the degree, I have the money, I have connections.” The words come faster now. “I could start my ownfirm, focus on community projects, work with nonprofits and local governments…”
“You’re getting that look,” Lior observes with amusement.
“What look?”
“The same look you had when you founded the LGBT business students club in college.” Lior’s smile turns nostalgic. “You realized that not everyone came from money, that some students were struggling to afford textbooks while we were complaining about the quality of the cafeteria coffee. You threw yourself into creating support systems, mentorship programs, scholarship funds…”
The memory surfaces, warm and bittersweet. “I kept thinking about how I could have been one of those scholarship kids,” I admit. “If I hadn’t been adopted into money, if my birth mother had kept me… I might not have had the means to go to college at all.”
“I fell in love with that version of you.” Lior leans forward. “And I’m seeing it again right now. That same determination, that same belief that you can actually change something.”
I stand, unable to contain the energy coursing through me. “I could do this, couldn’t I? I could actually make this work.”
“Pierce, you can do anything you set your mind to. You always could.”
The possibility unfurls like a flower blooming in fast-forward. “I want to quit VSE,” I hear myself say, the words surprising even me with their certainty. “I want to leave and start over and build something that’s mine.”
Lior stands and wraps his arms around me. “I am so happy for you, my friend.”
“You’re not angry? I’m abandoning you?—”
“You’re choosing happiness,” Lior interrupts. “I accept your resignation with one condition.”
“What?”
His grin is mischievous. “I get to be your best man at your wedding.”
I laugh despite everything, the sound rusty from disuse. “I don’t even know if Thatcher will have me back. It’s been so hard being around him that I’ve practically ignored his existence for the last month.”
“Then you need to convince him that he needs you as much as you need him.” Lior stands, his expression determined. “Go get him, Pierce. Stop waiting for the perfect moment and make your own moment.”
As he heads for the door, I call after him. “Lior?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you. For everything. For being a better friend than I deserve.”
“You deserve everything good, Pierce. Don’t forget that.”
After he leaves, I stand in my empty apartment, looking at the architecture books scattered across my coffee table. For the first time in months, the future doesn’t feel like a burden.
It feels like a possibility.
“Fuck, I’ve just quit my job,” I say aloud because I can’t believe this is happening.
Tomorrow, I’m going to tell the man I love that I can’t spend another day without him. Without being able to step outside and show the world that I’m his.
The thought terrifies and exhilarates me in equal measure.
But for the first time in a month, I feel alive.
31
THATCHER
