Just thinking.
Then:
“You don’t like what?” she asked. “That I talked to him?”
That question should’ve been simple.
It wasn’t.
Because the answer wasn’t clean.
So I said the closest thing to truth without naming it:
“I don’t like not knowing what it means.”
That shifted something.
Not her expression.
The space.
ROWAN
That was the first honest thing he’d said all night.
And it wasn’t even about me.
It was about control again.
Always control.
“You don’t get to know everything,” I said.
“I know that.”
“Do you?”
That landed.
He didn’t respond immediately.
Because I think that one actually hit.
The idea that knowing wasn’t optional for him.
It just… defaulted.
Then he said quietly:
“I don’t ignore things.”
“That’s not the same as understanding them,” I said.
Silence.
Not heavy.
Just real.
