A tall man wearing a gray hoodie and a navy blazer with a pair of dark jeans was sitting on the bench outside the high-rise where I lived.
No. It couldn’t be him.
My pulse pounded in my ears as my eyes widened with disbelief when I took in his dark hair and chiseled jaw—and I just started running.
“Bear?” I shouted from about forty feet away, my heart racing.
He stood up and opened his arms, just as I launched myself into him.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, panting from the short sprint. “What? How? What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Jeege. Fancy meeting you here,” he said as a sexy grin spread across his handsome face.
“What are you doing? How are you here?”
“I missed my girl. Wanted to come see you and didn’t want you to tell me all the reasons why I didn’t need to do that.”
I gaped at him. “I wouldn’t have told you not to come.”
“No? You wouldn’t have worried about me missing work?”
“Well, maybe. I know how much you have on your plate right now.” I chuckled. “But I’m so happy to see you.”
“Listen, I know we said no plans, but I wanted to talk to you about that, so here I am.”
“Here you are. You’re full of surprises.” I pushed up on my tiptoes and kissed him. His hand tangled in my hair, and he kissed me right back.
Someone whistled from behind me, and I quickly pulled back as Cutler laughed and reached for my hand.
I led him inside, and as we rode the elevator up to my floor, I just stared at him. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“Is it a good thing?”
“It’s the best thing. I was struggling a little bit today,” I admitted, because he was here, so it seemed fair to just tell him how I was feeling.
And by “struggling a little,” I mean “struggling a lot.”
He nodded slowly. “I’ve been struggling too.”
I didn’t expect that. Cutler was always so calm and together, so I’d just imagined him back home living his best life.
What if he was here to tell me that he couldn’t handle the way we’d left things? What if he wanted to just call this done? Maybehe felt guilty about the idea of dating other women unless he officially told me first?
Or maybe he was here to tell me that he’d met someone.
Was this the “We should go back to being just friends” speech?
I’d understand if so. He must be lonely. I was lonely.
I was painfully lonely.
But I didn’t want anyone but him, so how was I supposed to fix that?
“Don’t go deciding why I’m here before you hear me out,” he said as the elevator door opened to my floor.
“How do you always know what I’m thinking?”
“Because I know you, maybe even better than I know myself.” He walked beside me as I pulled out my keys and opened the door.
