“You’re both willing to build something with someone who might walk?”
“Yes,” Zane says without hesitation.
I shrug. “I’ve built nothing with people who walked anyway. At least this would be real. At least, it feels real to me. For all of us.”
Ryder’s jaw flexes. “We don’t fracture over this. We have enough drama of our own.”
“We’re not,” I reply. “But if we don’t deal with what’s happening soon, we might.”
“You slept with her,” he says to me.
“Yeah.”
“You did too,” I shoot at Zane.
Zane doesn’t deny it.
Ryder exhales through his nose. “Yeah, so did I. Even though I knew it’d make things complicated.”
“You bought a bar as a redemption arc,” I point out. “You love complicated.”
His eyes flash.
Zane pushes off the counter. “We need to finish this upstairs.”
Ryder grabs the cash box. I flick off the remaining lights, leaving the low amber beam we keep for atmosphere.
We head upstairs to the apartment.
Ryder sets the cash down on the kitchen table and turns to face us fully.
“If we do this,” he says, “we do it intentionally. No half commitments. No testing the waters while she thinks it’s solid ground.”
Zane nods. “Agreed.”
“And if she leaves?” Ryder asks.
Zane’s jaw tightens, but he answers. “Then she leaves. But she doesn’t leave wondering how we felt.”
I lean against the wall. “I’m not performing anymore. I’m not the fun option. I’m not the side quest.”
Ryder looks at me sharply.
“I want to be chosen,” I admit. “Not rotated.”
“You’re not disposable,” Zane says quietly.
It hits.
Ryder’s thumb presses against his silver ring again.
“She deserves clarity,” he says.
“She deserves choice,” Zane adds.
“She deserves all the information before she packs her car and disappears again,” I finish.
A beat.
