Chapters
When Alex called me the next morning, Hersed.
When he tested one that afternoon, I stared at the message last data’s reply
theheshowed up autole my apartment dui veening, I want tmprised – jou a
Topened the dioc, and there he stood, locking every bras stubborn and determined as he’d alwaysbeen.
“Lanes,” he said softh, as it he couldcoas me Intelistening with the mese sound at
“ales, Etill you I needdipare.“1 uidcasting in arms. “What part of thai didn’t you understand?”
,” he admitted, his wolor steady. “Not after everything I sit last night.”
Trighet, sipping aside to let him in, reen though I kamu 1 theudby
“Make in polik,” 1 all, closing the don behind lim
He nodded, but the termoon in his paw told me this wasn’t going to be pili kati
we stood in the middle of my living, the brick with und motion.
“You dennene in hear me out.” Alexsaid, his volum.
1 laughed bornedy, shaking my head. “that you det? alex, I’ve been hearing you out for years. Every time you’ve come to me with your problems, your doutes, your endless indecision–1’ve Inimed And what has it pertEN ME
He flinched at my moodi bat indict back down. “I know I’ve hurt you, Lauren, Iknow I’ve made mittaker”
“Mistakes?” I said, my vel cising “You call leading me on for years a mistake? You call getting engaged to someone else while still holding onto me a mistaker?
He opened his minuch to respond, but I didn’t let him
No. Ales. A mintake in forgetting to pick up milk at the store. A mistakes is being late to a meeting What you’ve done isn’t a mistake–it’s a pattern/
Hin saw tightened, and he looked away, as it my woods were too much to face!
How tym always known how about you,” continued, my voice trembling with the weight of years of bed–up pain. You’ve known, and yet you kept me at arm’s length, just close enough to keep me hoping but never close enough to feel secure
1 interrupted, my anger bubbling even
oven “Do you have any idea what it ulike to kren someone i
someone who sees you as an option to spend years wondering if m
I maybe, just maybe, this time
He stepped closes, hupelled with report” never wanted to hurt you
“But you did,† 1 kaid, my voice breaking “Over andover again.”
Ales reached for my hand, but I stepped back, creating a physical baltier between us.
V don’t pet to touch me right now,” I said, my toma sharp.
Husband den his side, and he looked at me with a mixtureel frustration and pain. “I’m trying, Lauren.I’m trying to fix thân”
“Eu what?” I demanded. “You can’t just show up here and expect to undo years of damage with a low apologies and confusions.”
He can a band through his hair, his frondent. “I’m not expecting anything. I just don’t want to lose you.”
“You already have,” 1 said quietly, the words cutting through the tension like a kille
Bdence fell between us, heavy and straig
−1 deserve better than this, Alex, I said finally, my voketrambling but firm. I deve some who chooses without hesitation, someone who doesn’t need years of doubts and second-
-You’re right,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Blinked, taught off guard by his agernest. “What?”
repeated, looking up at me with tear–tiledayes. “You deserve bettre. And I hate that I’ve been much of a coward to be that person for you.”
bat nur Handel than I expected, and for a moment, I didn’t know what to ury.
“Why jame, Alex?““Tasked, my voice soft but lared with hot “Why are you saying all of this now, alter everything?”
He bursitated, as of searching for that tight woods. “Because I thought I was doing the right thing by staying away, by trying to move on, but I can’t No matter how hardly, can’t stop
Tatared at hist, by heart acting matter weight of his
He aboon hundeat, hespression filled with guilt. “1 da’t know, I don’t have all the an
“And what sophia? What about the you’ve been building with her
- na. But I know that pretending to be someone I’m not–pretending to be okay without you–lov’t
leted away, unable to kokat him.
nget. The nam felt too small, the alt too thick.
I said, my voice irruilding. “You’d asking not to take a chance on you again, after years of being hurt, after watching you build a le seith
ang todo whatever it takes to that trust. To prove you that I’m not the same person I was
“dited what happens if you change your mind again?” I asked, turning to face him. “What happens if you decide you’re scared, or contused, one? What happens to me then?
“Ideadline,” Traidinally, myroke viraly despite the leans threatening torpill.
midfi belli jelard and son time “Take all the time you need just, dati’t shui me out completely.
Alex legitated for a moment before stepping through the dry way. He found back to link at me, his wyes filled with beging “toolight_Lauren,” he said sodily
