Page 18 of On The Edge

“Oh, honey—”

“No. It’s a good thing. It’s . . . best if we use this time to figure out what it is we actually want.” And it’s true. Was it hard to break things off with him? Definitely. Did I catch a slight startle of relief flicker through his eyes when I brought it up last night? Yes.

“Wow. So mature,” she muses.

I lift my eyebrows as I catch the slightest of smiles and the quick glance between my parents. One they still think I don’t catch despite not being a little kid anymore. My mom and dad have tolerated Michael. They didn’t dislike him . . . they were just indifferent about him.

Much like I was, if I’m honest with myself.

“I’ll be traveling a lot. I’ll be super busy with my work schedule while there.” Work I don’t exactly want to define right now. “Maybe all of this happening is Fate’s way of telling me I need to shake things up a bit.”

“Agreed. One hundred percent.” My mom gasps and holds her hand to her chest, startling both me and my dad. “What if he falls for her, Gavin?” she asks my dad, eyes wide and almost bouncing on her toes, as if I’m not present.

I choke on air and start coughing to cover it up. If only she knew. The upside is that comment just made it so much easier to sell the lie to them when I’m thousands of miles away.

“Stranger things have happened,” my dad says in his deep baritone as he scrubs a hand over his trimmed beard. “But a word of advice, if you do happen to fall in love with this Latin lover—”

“Dad!”

“I googled him. What dad is going to let his daughter run off to a job and not research where and who she’s going with?” He shrugs. “As I was saying, if things do happen to . . . progress, make sure he knows how to get his hands dirty. It’s one thing to look smooth driving that car. It’s another to know how to work under its hood.”

My mom rolls her eyes and then smiles gently when she glances at the clock. “You need to get going.”

“I know.”

I’m not sure why, but when I hug them goodbye, I feel like it’s for so much longer than a couple of months. It’s almost as if I know everything is going to change, when there is no possible way I could ever know that.

Gravel crunching under tires tells me that my rideshare is here. We finish saying our goodbyes, and when I look up, I’m taken aback by the sight of Michael at the end of my driveway.

“I’m guessing he’s not the rideshare,” my dad says.

Fucking perfect.

“Um . . . I’ll go talk to him while I wait for my driver,” I say.

“Fine. Sure. We’re going to head back to the house. Let you two have your privacy.”

We exchange a few more hugs. My mom sheds a tear and my dad gets that gruff voice that says he needs to leave before tears burn in his eyes too. Within a minute, they’re driving off in their utility vehicle toward their house as I make my way toward Michael.

He stands with his hands shoved in his pockets and his ass resting against the fender of his SUV. His blond hair is disheveled, and his jaw is clenched as he meets my eyes.

“For the record, I think this is shit,” he says by way of greeting.

I was fine with how we left things last night. Him angry. Me feeling some weird sense of relief. I thought his anger had more to do with his bruised ego than us breaking up.

I look at him, my eyes squinting from the sunlight, and nod, not wanting to exacerbate this any more than it already is.

“You’re trying to be someone you’re not, Maddix.”

“Or what if I’m trying to be the someone I want to be?” I counter. My night was spent doing a lot of reflecting. I didn’t work two jobs to put myself through college just to snub an opportunity like this. Is my college degree in faking a relationship? Most definitely not, but would I be stupid to pass up the doors this charade might open for me and their exposure to different career and networking opportunities? Definitely.

“You could never be the woman on that stupid pinboard of yours. It’s fantasy. She’s a fantasy. Pipe dreams are just that. Unattainable and unrealistic. And the fact that you think you’re better than everyone else because you’re going to go chase yours is asinine. But don’t worry, I’ll still take you back when you realize your mistake. When you come to your senses and realize the girl you are belongs here. Not out there in the world.” He chuckles like his comment is the wittiest thing in the world.

It’s not. In fact, it shows his true colors. A whole rainbow full of them that I want no part of.

They make it so much easier to just nod at him as my rideshare pulls up. To deposit my luggage in the trunk without a glance his way before sliding into the backseat without another word.

Goodbye, Michael.