“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
That should’ve shut me up.
It didn’t.
“I don’t mind you being here,” I said.
“That’s not the same thing.”
He nodded once.
Slow.
Like he agreed.
But didn’t relax.
MASON
That answer sat wrong.
Not because it was negative.
Because it wasn’t complete.
Rowan never spoke in full edges.
Always partial truths.
Like she was testing what she could say without changing anything.
Music hit harder behind us now.
The crowd moved again.
But we didn’t.
That was the problem.
Everything around us was unstable.
We weren’t.
“I saw you talking to him,” I said.
She blinked once.
Then again.
“That’s not a sentence,” she replied.
“It is for me.”
That made her go quiet for a second.
Not uncomfortable.
