“Yeah, I’m fine,” Cole replied, brushing it off. “Nothing serious.”
Jack nodded slowly, relief softening his features before his gaze shifted toward me. “Are you alright?”
I opened my mouth, but before I could answer, Cole stood up.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” he asked.
His eyes locked onto mine.
For a moment—just a moment—I let myself look back at him.
The concern on his face made my chest constrict. Everything I had felt on the drive there rushed back at once: the fear, the panic, the realization of how much he meant to me. Something must have flickered across my face, because I saw the change in his eyes immediately.
Jack cleared his throat awkwardly. “Um… nothing,” he said, glancing between the two of us like he had walked into something he didn’t quite understand. He rubbed the back of his neck and continued, “She jumped out of the car and ran between traffic since the signal was taking too long. I thought she got hit at one point.”
Cole’s head snapped toward him and then to me. “You did what?” His voice rose as he walked toward me.
The sudden intensity in his tone made my heart pound harder.
I met his gaze again, but this time I didn’t let my emotions show. “I’m glad you’re fine,” I said quietly.
That was the truth.
The only thing that mattered.
I turned to Jack, glancing briefly between him and Stephanie. “If you or Stephanie need anything, please let me know. I have to get back to the restaurant.”
Before anyone could stop me or ask questions, I turned and walked out of the room, without looking back.
By the timeI stepped into the house after getting out of the cab, my emotions felt twisted inside me.
I went straight to the shower.
The moment the warm water poured over me, everything I had been holding back came rushing out like a dam finally breaking. My shoulders shook as the reality of the day settled over me.
I cared about Cole.
The fear I had felt in that hospital hallway had been raw and terrifying. During those endless minutes when I thought something might have happened to him, something deep inside me had cracked open, like ice breaking after a long winter.
I depended on him—on his presence, his friendship, his strength that had slowly woven itself into the fabric of my life.
Somewhere along the way, he had become more than just a friend. He had become my solace, my quiet place—the one person who could calm the chaos inside my mind without even trying. He had become my strength on days when I did not have the energy to be strong for everyone else.
And the truth that scared me the most was that my feelings for him were no longer just friendship. They had not been for a while. The phone call about his accident had forced that realization into the open and made me understand just how important he had become to me.
After my shower, Geeta placed a plate of food in front of me at the dining table.
“What’s wrong,Didi?” she asked, her brows wrinkling.
“Nothing, Geeta,” I said, forcing a small smile while playing with the food on my plate. “I just realized something today.”
I avoided her gaze, pushing the food around without really eating.
I tried to keep my mind away from Cole.
But the thought came anyway.
He was with Stephanie.
