Felix knows it’s over, too.
Swiping at the tears on my face, I allow him to usher me to the passenger door of his car. A numbness settles over me as Islide onto the cool leather seat. Felix jogs around the car and climbs inside.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him once we’ve pulled onto the road. “How did you know?—”
“Gabe texted me,” he says.
“Oh.” Of course he did. Even angry, Gabriel would never abandon me. Even when he has every right to.
We drive in silence and I stare down at my hands, wondering how everything went so horribly wrong. I feel awful about the wedding. I never meant to— I cut off the thought. Gabriel deserves better than this. If I’d known how awful of a woman his mother was, I never would have suggested we come. The last thing I ever wanted was to hurt Gabriel.
But that's all we seem capable of doing to one another lately. Hurting each other.
What if he never forgives me for this?
All of a sudden, I get a glimpse of the way he’s been feeling these past few weeks.
I was wrong to blame him for what Austin did. I may have asked Gabriel to let me fight my own battles, but what happened that day, it wasn’t his fault. He wasn’t the one who attacked me and I had no right to blame him the way that I did.
“What did he tell you?” I ask, suddenly desperate to know what else Gabriel may have said when he messaged him.
“Nothing,” he tells me, eyes trained on the road in front of him. “He dropped me the address and asked me to take you home.”
“That was it?”
He nods.
“And you just dropped everything and came?” No need for clarity? No questions asked?
Felix shrugs. “That’s what family does,” he tells me. “We show up for one another. He wouldn’t have asked me to take you home unless things got fucked up. So, here I am.”
A fresh wave of tears blurs my vision because things are fucked up. They’re so fucked up, and I don’t know how we’ll ever come out of this. He was so angry with me. So … hurt. I did that to him. I put him in that position. I made him relive the feeling of loss and abandonment his parents put him through all over again.
“You wanna tell me what happened between the two of you?” he asks.
I open my mouth. Close it. Try again.
“I think I really messed up.”
He sighs, his expression grim. “I like you, Cecilia. We all do.” There’s a “but” coming, and I brace myself for it. “But you’re not helping him. Whatever this situationship the two of you guys have going on is, it’s not healthy. Not for him. And probably not for you.” I nod, hating the truth of his words. “Gabe cares too much. Loves too much. And all it’s getting him is?—”
“Hurt,” I finish for him.
“Yeah.”
We don’t talk again after that.
CHAPTER 69
GABRIEL
Iride alone with my thoughts for close to an hour before I find myself slowing as I reach Pier 39. The sight of the ocean shimmering beneath the sunset brings a sense of calmness to my turbulent mind.
With a deep breath, I dismount from my bike and walk toward the edge of the dock, the old wooden planks creaking beneath my weight.
My phone buzzes incessantly in my pocket, each vibration a jarring interruption to the solitude I seek. With a frustrated sigh, I finally reach into my pocket and turn the damn thing off, silencing the persistent notifications that have plagued me since parting ways with Cecilia.
As I gaze out at the vast expanse of the ocean, lost in my own thoughts, a voice interrupts my solitude.
