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She looked up at him. “So you think it’s all going wrong because we are business partners?”
“I didn’t say that. Both us dating and us being business partners has made everything so much better.”
“But everything with the business was going greatuntilwe started dating and being business partners. Then everything went downhill. So it’s either because of the partnership or because of the relationship.”
“Joselyn,” he said, wanting to wrap her in the kind of hug that would comfort her and wash away all her worries, “it wasn’t because of either of those things. They’re just obstacles we need to overcome— sometimes bad things just happen.” He believed the words he was saying. But there was also a part of him that had those same fears. A part that wondered if he hadn’t been tempting fate by having too many great things in his life.
“This manybad things? I don’t know, Marcus. I read some statistics that showed that couples who become business partners have a higher chance of ending their relationship than couples who don’t.”
“You looked up the statistics on that?” His voice came out incredulous, but he couldn’t help it— he was incredulous.
“Statistics don’t lie.”
“Statistics aren’t aboutus. This is you and me, Joselyn. We can’t just use logic and spreadsheets to make our life decisions. They don’t take into account our hearts.”
He could tell that she didn’t like the comment about the spreadsheets. She wrapped her arms around herself like maybe she was trying to protect her heart. “I’m just saying that maybe we’re stacking too much against us. Too many things are happening at the same time.”
“And you think that not dating will fix everything?” That would ruin everything. Through every part of this, Joselyn had been his place of calm in the storm. His guide through the maze. The excitement and joy that washed away all fears. His peace through worries. He loved her with every part of himself and wanted to be with her through everything else that would come.
“This business couldfail, Marcus! Seventy percent of all business partnerships fail. So yes, I think we should pull back on the dating.”
His brows drew together. “Statistics say that there’s a chance it could fail, so you think we should pull back? Like in high school when you read that quiz and it said there was a chance we wouldn’t work out, so you ended things?” It was an awful thing to bring up and he felt terrible saying it the moment the words were out of his mouth. “Joselyn, I can’t see you every day and be moving forward in our business life and not want to be moving forward in our personal lives, too. I don’t know how to do that.”
She studied him for a long moment, then in a quiet, sad voice, she said, “We do know how to not move forward in our personal lives. We’ve done it for ten years— we’re experts at it.”
Marcus’s mind flashed back to the past ten years and how hard it had been to be around Joselyn but not be dating her. Now that they had dated again, he knew exactly what he was missing out on. Exactly how much he loved her. Exactly how much he wanted to spend his life with her. The thought of sharing a business with her and not sharing a life with her was impossible.
“I just think that maybe we need to put all our focus on the business,” she said. “It’s the most important thing.”
The words were daggers to his heart. There was nothing on earth that was more important to him than she was. But those words meant she wasn’t just wanting to put their relationship on pause— it meant that she didn’t feel the same way about him that he felt about her. Their relationship just wasn’t as important to her. He couldn’t stay and have his heart crushed every single day when he came into work and saw her, loving her fully, yet knowing she didn’t feel the same.
He wasn’t sure he would ever be able to get over Joselyn— he wouldn’t even be able to try if he stayed in Nestled Hollow. He needed to go to a place where he could lick his wounds and at least try to heal.
He slumped against the wall too. He could feel her eyes on his, but he couldn’t turn to meet them. Almost like the words were coming from someone else, he found himself saying, “This business would be so much better if you were the one running the show. All of it.”
“You don’t want to stay being business partners?” Joselyn’s voice came out quiet, shallow, hollow.
He wanted to stay being everything. He wanted it all. He wanted Joselyn in his life every day. He wanted to hold her and love her and dream big dreams with her and build a life together. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t be around her every day and not have a life with her. It was an impossibility.
He ignored the pain in his chest, the part of him that wanted to beg her to be by his side in life and in business. Instead, he forced himself to say, “You’d run this better than I ever could. I can either turn my half over to you, or I can be a silent partner.” He cleared his throat and plowed forward. “Either way, I think it would probably be best if I wasn’t around. I’d been considering going back to Hawaii before I found out about the building— I think I should probably do that now.”
“You’re going to leave? Just walk away?” The hurt in her voice was more than he could bear.
He wanted to slide to the ground and not get up for a very long time. But he pushed himself away from the wall to stand up. “I can’t stay.”
“How am I supposed to run this shop without you, Marcus? It takes both of us. Me for the business end and you for the ice cream.”
He shook his head. “You’re amazing, Joselyn. I’ll make sure you have everything you need before I go, and you’ll do just fine without me. You’ll have all the Zimmermans supporting you, too. You’ve set this business up brilliantly— everything will be just fine.”
“It won’t be, Marcus! And what about coming up with new flavors? You can’t just go.”
He tried to swallow down the emotion. The part of him that never wanted to leave. “I have to.” He took one glance at her but didn’t want her to see how much it was hurting him to walk away. He started walking down the narrow alley between Macie’s future shop and the one that had been his and Joselyn’s for a blissful but way too short a moment.
He’d only made it a few steps toward Main Street when Joselyn said to his retreating back, “You’re going to just disappear out of my life like you did when I was in high school?”
He stiffened and paused, then kept on walking.
This was not just like high school. Back in high school, he loved her with everything he had. This time, his love for her was unimaginably greater than it had been back then. In high school, he’d always figured he would eventually recover from the pain of losing her. Now he knew better.
