“You wanna order something, or you want the food from earlier?” I asked.
“We can do whatever,” she said. “But to be truthful, I didn’t really come over here for food.”
She said it casual, but I heard everything underneath it.
I felt it too.
I took a few steps closer, not touching her yet. “What you come over here for then?”
She held my gaze for a second, then glanced away like she was trying to gather her words. “I just… did not feel like being by myself tonight.”
That landed.
Because I understood that more than she knew.
“Cool,” I said, keeping my voice even. “You ain’t by yourself no more.”
Her eyes came back to mine at that.
I grabbed my phone, ordered us some food anyway, and then tossed it on the counter. The two of us ended up on the couch, her on one end, me on the other. It felt stupid how aware I was of the space between us.
We talked while we waited. Nothing too deep at first. Little shit. The drinks at the bar. The people on the resort. Her calling some of the rich guests “off-brand movie stars.” That made me laugh harder than I wanted to admit.
But even when we were laughing, the tension sat there.
Thick, quiet, and waiting for something to go down.
The food came and gave us something to do with our hands. I made her a plate, and she tried to act like she did not care, but I caught the way her eyes softened for a second before she covered it up with attitude.
“Thank you,” she mumbled.
“You welcome,” I told her.
We ate, talked, and by the time we were done, it was dark outside. The only light in the villa came from the lamps and the flicker from the TV I had turned on without really watching.
Melissa leaned back against the couch, her legs tucked under her, her eyes on the screen but her mind clearly somewhere else.
“You good?” I asked.
She nodded, then shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“At least you honest.”
That pulled a small smile out of her.
I studied her face for a moment. “You still thinking about last night?”
“Yeah,” she admitted. “But not just that.”
“What else then?”
She hesitated, and I could see the fight in her eyes. The side of her that wanted to keep everything surface-level was wrestling with the part that wanted to finally tell the truth.
“Everything,” she finally said. “Home. My dad. All the shit I went through with Jordan. Me ending up here. You ending up here. The fact that I almost…” She trailed off and sucked in a breath. “I just feel like life has not been letting up on me for a long time, and I am tired.”
I sat forward, looking her in her eyes. “You ever let yourself be tired around somebody else, or you always hold that shit in?”
She looked at me like she did not know whether to be annoyed or impressed. “You always asking these deep-ass questions?”
