Page 106 of True Colors

“That’s not the point,” Ria counters. “The point is that you decided for her. You took her agency away. And then”—she pauses, and when she speaks again, her voice is sharper—“you let someone else take credit for her work.”

“Fuck!”

“She trusted you,” Ria scolds. “Not just professionally—personally. You didn’t just sideline an employee, Luther—you betrayed a woman who trusted you with her story. With her trauma. With parts of herself she probably doesn’t give lightly.”

I rub my forehead. “I love her.”

“That wasn’t a very loving thing you did, Luther.”

“I know. I was compartmentalizing work and life.”

“You’re having a fucking office romance,” Ria snaps. “So much for compartmentalizing!”

I hear Theo in the background. “Who’s having an office romance? Luther?”

“Yeah,” Ria tells him. “It’s a data analyst. Apparently, she’s cute, and he fell in love and then fucked up and has now lost her.”

“Not surprised. Your brother is an idiot.”

“Hey, I heard that,” I mutter.

“Good!” Theo retorts.

“Ria, I need help. I…need a way to fix it all.”

“What’s number one on the list of things to fix?” she asks.

“Getting Anouk back,” I say immediately. “Making her feel safe with me again. Making her feel valued. Apologizing to her. And—not necessarily in that order.”

Ria exhales. “Okay. I’m going to be brutally honest with you, and you’re not going to like it.”

“Not liking much of anything right now,” I say sulkily.

“You don’t get to get her back,” she warns. “Not as a goal or an outcome. Not as something you work toward like a KPI.”

I frown. “Then what am I supposed to do?”

“You make amends!” she says, frustrated. “And you accept that she may never forgive you.”

My heart hurts. “That’s not⁠—”

“That’s the cost,” Ria cuts in, not soft about it. “You don’t apologize to be absolved. You apologize because you understand the harm you caused, and you’re willing to carry the consequence.”

I don’t have to think about this too hard. I know what I need to do. “I am willing to carry the consequence.”

“And one of those is that she won’t take you back.”

“Fuck!”

“You also don’t get to decide what makes her feel safe,” she adds, like a sprinkling of garnish on top of an ice cream. “You change your behavior. You show her—over time—that you have evolved.”

“I hate that I did this.”

“Good,” Ria replies. “Sit with that. Don’t rush past it. Shame can be useful if it turns into humility instead of self-pity.”

Theo’s voice floats in again. “Tell him to grovel properly.”

“Working on it,” Ria says.