"No. But I want to tell him soon. Face to face. Before someone else does."
"Who else would tell him?"
"I don't know. But secrets have a way of getting out."
She stands. Walks a few steps away. Her shoulders are tense.
"You regret this?" she asks without turning around.
"No. I don't regret anything about us. But I do regret lying to the one person who trusted us enough to give us his blessing without us even asking."
She turns to face me. "So we tell him. When you get back. We sit him down and explain everything. He'll understand."
"Will he?"
"You said he was fine with it."
"I said he gave me his blessing. That was before we did exactly what he was worried about. Going behind his back."
Callie crosses her arms. "He wasn't worried about that. He said he trusted you."
"Which makes this worse."
We stare at each other. The park is quiet except for birds and distant traffic. Normal Sunday afternoon. Normal life. Nothing about this feels normal.
"I should go home," she finally says.
"Don't."
"Ethan. If staying makes you feel this guilty, I should just go."
"That's not what I want."
"Then what do you want?"
"I want to stop hiding. Want to be able to see you without feeling like I'm betraying my best friend."
"Then tell him. Call him right now. Get it over with."
I pull out my phone. Stare at Luke's name in my contacts. My thumb hovers over the call button.
"Not over the phone," I say. "He deserves better than that."
"So what? We drive back today? Show up at his door and confess?"
"Maybe."
"Ethan. That's insane. You have work here for another week."
"I can finish remotely. Most of it's done anyway."
"You're going to drive twelve hours because you feel guilty?"
"I'm going to drive twelve hours because it's the right thing to do."
She laughs. It's not a happy sound. "This is exactly what I was afraid of. That the guilt would eat at you until there was nothing left."
"It's not guilt. It's respect. For Luke. For what he means to both of us."
