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“It’s not so simple” he replied.
“It never is.”
We sat for a moment in silence, and then Leo said, “Well, the first pizza should be ready for us to dig into.”
And we turned the conversation from heavy, life-altering topics to pizza toppings and eating and laughing about some new viral video online. For a few hours, we escaped from the heaviness of being adults and just had fun. It was exactly what both of us needed.
Later, after we indulged in way too much pizza, he took me home. In front of the condo in the passenger seat, I was in no rush to get out. I turned to him.
“I had a great time,” I said.
“I always do with you,” Leo said. I could hear a tinge of sadness in his voice. Because for him, it was a summer escape, too. He had to be thinking about how it wouldn’t last, just like I was.
He looked at me. “I hope that you’ll fight for what makes you happy, Tillie. Not what other people want for you.”
“I hope the same for you,” I said. The unspoken words floated between us: Soon, we wouldn’t be there for each other. Soon, we’d both be back on our respective hamster wheels, which were wildly different but spinning at the same speed.
There was a sparkle in his deep blue eyes. I thought he was going to kiss me. I thought I might want him to. But then I thought about how soon, I’d just be a blip on his mansion-living, song singing radar. Did I need any more complications in my life?
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow?” I asked.
“All right then,” he said, with a smile.
“All right then,” I replied. And I hobbled out of the car, watching him drive away. For a moment, I stood still, wondering how bad it was going to sting when he drove away for the final time to go back to his London life.
That’s the thing about falling. You always know eventually you’re going to smack off the ground.
Chapter Twenty-One
“I can’t believe you would even suggest this. I thought you believed in me, in the place. You always believed in me,” I said through tears as I stood up from my seat at our tiny apartment-sized table. Pickles rubbed my leg, the cat Brad had bought me for my birthday the year before. For once, it did nothing to comfort me.
“Tillie, I’m not trying to hurt your feelings or you. This isn’t about you. It’s just about logical business analysis. It makes sense for us to stop this madness. We can’t keep going.”
I turned to stare at him, the man who had stolen my heart when I was just twenty. Now, years later, settled into an apartment with thoughts of a soon-to-be engagement ring on my finger, I didn’t recognize him. He’d always believed in Tillie’s Brews from that first day when he helped me set up the accounting software. He believed in it through our first kiss, our first dates, when we moved in together. He believed in it when I didn’t. He believed so much, he’d invested in it early on.
And now, here we were. I was almost thirty and had spent all of my twenties on the business—and on our relationship. And here I was, failing so badly that my so-called biggest supporter was ready to call it quits.
