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“I know that,” I agreed, but that was exactly what I wanted to do. Reality wasn’t always my strong suit when it came to her. “But fuck, Eve. I’ve missed you so damn much,” I said as I pushed to a stand, hovering over her still-sitting frame.
It took everything in me not to grab her caveman-style, toss her over my shoulder, and march straight into the bedroom… wherever that was… and show her just how much I’d missed her.
“I’ve missed you too.” Her eyebrows pulled together like she was in pain. “But you really hurt me.”
“I know.” I shook my head before begrudgingly walking back to my side of the table and sitting down. Running my hands across my face, I stayed in that position for longer than I’d anticipated, my breath hot against my palms as I tried to figure out how to make this better somehow. “I know I hurt you. I know I did.”
“Do you though?” she asked, her fingers brushing down my arms, causing me to look at her.Really look.“You left for New York, and you never came back. You broke up with me over the phone. And then…” She paused. “I literally never heard from you again.” She wiped at her face, and it killed me to see the tears fall from her eyes, knowing that I was the reason. “Until tonight.”
“I know I handled things poorly. I messed up. I can’t take back what I did. I wish I could. I’d do anything to turn back time and do it all over again,” I explained as my emotions made my voice shaky.
“What would you do differently?” she asked, her eyes piercing into mine.
“I wouldn’t have let you go. Ever,” I answered without even hesitating or taking a breath.
Her face softened, and she allowed a smile to spread across her lips. “Want to know something?”
“Always.”
“I think we would have broken up eventually anyway.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I felt myself growing ridiculously defensive. “Why would you say that?”
“Hear me out.” She sounded so calm, like she’d considered this alternate scenario a thousand times before. “We wouldn’t have made it through you moving across the country and me still being in school. And then all your movies. And me trying to start my business. I just think that, at some point, we would have ended things.”
I opened my mouth to argue or agree—I didn’t know which—but she spoke instead. “It just wouldn’t have been the way that you did it. So abrupt and without warning. I never saw it coming. I mean, Tyson”—she sniffed—“we were really happy.Really. Happy.Or at least, I was.”
“I was too. Don’t ever question that.”
“I’ve questioned everything at some point,” she admitted, and I felt about two inches tall.
I’d done that to her, made her feel like our relationship hadn’t been what it was. “I know that I caused that.”
She reached for her glass and finished off the rest of the contents before slamming it on the table a little too hard. “Oops.” She inspected it to make sure it hadn’t cracked. “This is so crazy.” Her exhale was loud.
“What is?”
“You. Here. Taking responsibility for what happened between us.” She shook her head. “I wanted this for so long. I thought I’d never get it.”
Fuck.
I’d just given her the one thing I never wanted her to have, no matter how selfish that sounded—closure.
Think fast, Tyson. Quick.
“I’m not trying to let you close the door, Eve.”
She looked at me with an odd expression.
“I’m trying to open it again.”
Her chair squeaked as she moved in it, scooting it a little closer. “But why now? After all this time, why are you just now showing up and asking for this?”
“Because I’m ready for more.” It was the most honest answer that I could give her.
“More what?”
“More…” I paused before adding, “Life.”
