I wasn’t going through it alone.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Ben
I stared at my laptop screen as if it had slapped me right in the face, which, to be fair, it kind of had.
I came here for a chance to breathe and recalibrate. Get a little perspective before my job turned me into a full-blown cautionary tale for burnout and corporate dependency.
So why,why, had my inbox tripled in size the second I clicked Out of Office?
You’d think I’d set fire to the entire company with the way they were reacting.
Subject line after subject line glared up at me with subtle variations of panic:
URGENT: Need Decision on Client Draft
Timeline Shift – Please Advise ASAP
I rubbed the bridge of my nose and leaned back in the too-soft lodge room chair, the wood creaking under me like it had commentary.
“This was supposed to be avacation,” I muttered.
No one back home got that memo.
And the worst part?
I’d brought it on myself.
Because I wasthat guy.The guy who always responded. Who always fixed things. Who couldn’t stand the idea of letting someone else drop the ball, even if it meant carrying the entire damn team on his back.
So now I was here, in a beautiful town, with a woman who’d somehow managed to short-circuit my brain and get under my skin, and I wasstilltethered to the inbox like it was an extension of my soul.
And because I’d let the stress creep back in…
I turned her down.
Dinner with Fifi.
A night with her smile. Her wit. Her easy, infectious laughter made it impossible not to smile back, even when I was in my worst mood.
And instead of sayingyes,I shut her down.
Like an idiot.
Because all I could think about at the time was the pressure. The voices in my ear. The quiet terror that if I let my attention slip for even a second, the life I’d built would cave in on itself.
But now?
Now all I could think about was her face when I told herI couldn’t.
The small shift in her eyes. That split second before she masked it. The way she stood a little straighter, smiled a little too smoothly, and walked away like she hadn’t just been quietly gutted.
I hated myself for that.
She didn’t deserve it.
Not after everything.
