Without thinking, I grabbed the nearest shirt and pressed it to my face, inhaling deeply as I made my way to the bed.
The past thirty-two hours crashed over me all at once.
The wedding I had walked away from.
My father’s slap.
My mother’s tears.
The hotel room where I’d spent the night, staring at the ceiling, replaying every word.
The 7 a.m. flight, followed by eleven gruelling hours in the air with two layovers. Twenty-three hours of travel that had left me hollow and exhausted.
But none of that compared to the fear eating at me now.
What if she didn’t want me back?
What if I’d waited too long, hurt her too deeply?
During our fight, she’d treated me like I didn’t exist. Never looked my way in class. Bolted the moment lectures ended. Left me scrambling to catch up only to watch her disappear around corners.
It felt like hatred.
Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks.
What was I even doing here?
Maybe I should leave before she came home and found me like this, broken and desperate in her bedroom, clutching her clothes like some pathetic?—
But I couldn’t move.
My legs gave out, and I sank onto her mattress, still holding her shirt against my chest. The exhaustion I’d been fighting for over a day finally won, pulling me under.
I curled up on top of her comforter, surrounded by everything that smelled like her, and let sleep take me away from all the ways I had ruined everything that mattered.
MARLEY
The moment I stepped through my front door, I knew something was different.
Off.
The air itself felt unusual.
I closed the door slowly and moved into the sitting room, my eyes scanning automatically for anything out of place.
Then I saw a handbag sitting on my kitchen counter.
My heart slammed against my ribs as recognition hit me.
I knew that bag.
I’d watched her dig through it countless times, searching for lip balm or her keys or those gummy bears she always carried.
It was devastatingly familiar.
She was here.
But how was that even possible?
