Tick.
Tock.
And then?—
Pick me up at 1:15.Don’t be late.
I grin like a maniac at nobody.Then I get practical again.I shower and throw on a clean shirt.Wallet, keys, phone.I stand in the entry and look at the sign—Do The Next Right Thing—and for once it doesn’t feel like it’s bashing me on the head.It feels like a hand at my back pushing me out the door toward the one person I want to be worthy of.
On the console table, the burner phone lies face down, silent.I leave it there.If Reyes wants to yank the chain he wrapped around my neck, he can wait an afternoon.He owes me that sliver of a day.
On the way out, I pass the mirror.My reflection looks like a guy who’s been up too many nights pretending.
“Don’t try to fix her,” I tell myself.“Just stand with her.Be with her.”
The road to Raven and Vinnie’s is muscle memory.I drive with the quiet hum of a plan in my chest and a ridiculous hope tapping a rhythm under my ribs.
If the result is what I pray it is, the world opens in a way I haven’t let myself imagine.If it isn’t, I’ll cross that bridge then.
Either way, tonight, after whatever this afternoon brings, I’m taking her to dinner.Not because a meal fixes anything—it doesn’t—but because someone I love deserves to be treated like she is loved.Because for once I want to give her a night that isn’t a crisis.
