“No.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
I looked down at the bracelet on my wrist.
Rachel waited.
Everyone waited.
Captain Pancake sneezed.
“I want to stay with you,” I said. “But I don’t want my staying to turn your life into something you didn’t choose.”
Ellie’s eyes remained on mine.
“And?”
“And leaving is easier.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
I forced myself to continue.
“It’s easier than watching you be angry with me. Easier than waiting while you decide whether anything between us can survive this. Easier than answering questions I should have answered days ago.”
Rachel nodded faintly.
I ignored her.
“So yes,” I said. “I’m leaving because the attention will follow me. But I’m also leaving because running back to work is something I know how to do.”
Ellie was quiet for several seconds.
“That,” she said, “is the first decision you’ve explained instead of selling.”
The words hurt.
They also felt like progress.
“I’m trying.”
“I can see that.”
The phone rang again.
Hank unplugged it from the wall.
“Problem solved.”
Rachel looked at him.
“That may be the first effective communications strategy I’ve seen today.”
He nodded.
“Coffee?”
“No.”
