Then:
“Yes,” I said.
That landed heavier than anything else tonight.
Rowan
The silence after that felt different.
Not tense.
Not awkward.
Just… honest.
I sat on the edge of the desk this time.
Not my bed.
Not his space.
Middle again.
That pattern was starting to bother me.
“You don’t trust anything, do you?” I asked.
“I trust things,” he said.
“What things.”
“Patterns,” he replied.
That made me tilt my head slightly.
“That’s not trust,” I said.
“It is for me.”
Of course it was.
I exhaled slowly.
“You realise that makes everything harder,” I said.
“I know.”
“And you don’t care?”
That made him look at me properly again.
Longer this time.
“No,” he said.
Then, after a beat:
“I care. I just don’t let it change how I operate.”
