Swallowing around the vice tightening my throat, I glanced up at the ceiling. “Let me see if I have this right: you lied to me, about something big, and you think I’ll tell your parents if I find out. Is that right?” The bitterness snuck into my voice.
We were now broken. This wasn’t like before, where she’d used logic and ethics and temperance to push me away. I could forgive that. In retrospect, it had almost been cute.
But this?
Maybe it’s for the best.
No. Fuck that. It wasn’t for the best. Us together was for the best.
Eying her back, her stiff shoulders bunched around her neck, I felt myself soften.
What happened to make her this way?
I couldn’t let her go without trying one more time.
“Lisa.” I placed a hand on her arm, keeping my touch light.
She tensed and I swallowed fear. I ignored my drumming heart, the taste of sand, the uncomfortable tightness in my chest that made taking a complete breath unbearable, and I reminded myself of Leo’s truest words: I try to stay soft, but the world makes it hard.
Be open. Be brave. Be soft, for Lisa.
“I told you yesterday, I just want to make you happy. Do you believe me?”
I watched her back rise and fall with a deep breath, and the barest glimmer of hope had me curling my fingers around her forearm.
But then she shook off my hand. “You can’t make me happy, Abram. People can’t make other people happy. I’ve tried that. It doesn’t work. The truth is, I’m still—I’m still in love with Tyler and—” She took another deep breath, and when she spoke next, I could barely hear her, “And sorry for dicking you around but nothing is ever going to happen with us, so just give me some fucking space.”
1
Electric Charge and Electric Field
Two and a half years later.
*Mona*
“You left.”
Shifting my eyes from the computer screen to the doorway of my office, I blinked at Poe’s sudden appearance. “Pardon?”