“Was it hard?” Dane asked quietly.
“Sometimes,” I admitted, with a small shrug. “Not impossible.”
At least, that was what I had told myself at the time. Back then, I thought that we were fine in the way people meant it when nothing was obviously wrong yet.
We called, texted, we visited when we could.
Life kept moving in a way that felt steady enough that I didn’t question whether steady could slowly turn into something else while everything still looked the same from the outside.
“I thought we were okay,” I said after a moment. “Then one day we just… weren’t, and he ended things.”
Dane’s expression shifted slightly at that.
“Then he met Elliot.” A small smile tugged at my mouth without permission. I added, “Elliot’s actually a good guy.”
“He is?” Dane asked, a slight lift to his brows, as if that detail wasn’t what he’d expected.
The smile stayed, but it didn’t sit comfortably anymore.
The truth of it wasn’t really about Darryl in the end, or even about the breakup itself. It was everything that had come with it.
My friends. The life I had. The people I used to see without having to plan for it.
Holidays that already had a place for me. Family gatherings where I never had to think about where I stood, because I’d already been folded into something that felt certain.
Nobody did anything wrong. There was nothing to hate. Just absence and inevitable change. My throat tightened.
A small, nervous laugh slipped out before I could stop it. “Things were just easier before, I guess.”
I lifted my gaze without fully meaning to. Dane’s eyes met mine.
He was closer than before, or maybe I just hadn’t noticed how close he’d gotten until now.
He reached up and tucked a loose curl behind my ear, his fingers lingering for a fraction of a second against my skin.
The touch was careful, almost hesitant, like he was still deciding how far he was allowed to go.
His thumb traced just under my eye, slow and feather-light. It made my breath catch for reasons I didn’t want to name.
He didn’t rush it. He stayed close, near enough that it was hard to think around him. For a second, I thought he might finally lean in.
Instead, he stopped right at the edge of it, waiting, like the choice had been left entirely to me. I could have stepped back. I knew that.
I closed the distance first.
Dane reacted immediately, a flicker of surprise crossing his face before it disappeared into something quieter. Then he met me halfway.
The kiss was soft. Careful in the same way everything about him had been just seconds ago, like he was still half-expecting it to fall apart.
His hand slid from my cheek to the back of his neck, pulling me in more firmly, and the carefulness I'd felt a moment ago gave way to something surer.
A moan slipped out of me as he tightened his grip at my waist.
Dane dragged me closer until there was nothing left between us except the steady press of him and the way my body answered before I could think to stop it.
There was nothing neat about it anymore.
There was only tongue and teeth, the heat of him, and the way everything shifted as he stopped holding back.
