I froze. “Renting a car?”
“Yeah. You live in the city, don’t you? There’s, like, a rental place on every corner.”
“I didn’t—” I floundered, heat crawling up my neck. “I didn’t think of that.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
“Right,” he said finally, voice quieter now. “Because you weren’t really planning to.”
“That’s not fair.”
“I’m not trying to be,” he said. “I just… I thought we were past this.”
My pulse kicked, uneven. “Past what?”
“The excuses. The almosts. The half-truths.”
“That’s not what this is.”
“Then what is it?” he asked, his voice breaking just slightly on the question. “Because I drove hours down to your city just to prove I wanted this, and I’m standing here trying to believe you want it too. But every time you get close, you pull away.”
The words hit hard, mostly because they weren’t wrong.
I swallowed, gripping the phone tighter. “You think Iwantto be stuck here? You think I planned for this?”
He exhaled, long and quiet. “No. I just think… maybe it’s easier this way.”
That did it. The guilt burned straight into frustration.
“You don’t get to decide what’s easy for me,” I snapped. “You don’t know what’s happening on my end.”
“You’re right,” he said, still calm, which made it worse. “I don’t.”
“Exactly,” I said, voice trembling. “So stop assuming.”
“Then tell me what’s true, Mel. Because I’m trying real hard to keep up.”
I closed my eyes. The truth was that he was right. Iwasscared. Scared that this thing between us would fall apart as soon as it became real. Scared that leaving Seattle, even for a few days, would remind me how much I wanted something I couldn’t keep.
But none of that was fair to him. Not after everything he’d done to show up for me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’ll figure it out. I’ll get it fixed. I’ll come tomorrow.”
He didn’t answer right away. When he finally did, his voice was tired in a way that made my chest ache. “Don’t promise something you can’t keep.”
“I’m not—”
“It’s fine,” he said quickly. Too quickly. “Really. We’ll figure it out. You take care of the car, I’ll take care of the bar. We’ll talk later.”
“Drew—”
“Mel,” he said, voice soft now, like he was pulling away before I could stop him. “Don’t say anything you’ll regret.”
And before I could explain, before I could make him understand that Iwasbeing honest, the line went dead. Because he was right. Why didn’t I think of renting a car or…anything?
I stood there, the silence ringing in my ears.
For a long moment, I couldn’t move. The phone felt heavy in my hand, the weight of everything unsaid pressing harder than I wanted to admit.
