Half a dozen things I want to say run through my head but never make it to my lips. I want to beg for her forgiveness, prostrate myself until she smiles at me again with all that unfiltered joy, and tell her how much she means to me, but the gloom binds my tongue. It’s better this way. I was foolish to think I might get to keep her. There’s no version of her future with me in it—not where she also reaches her full potential.
Two and a half torturous hours pass before the tow truck finally arrives. Not once during the wait does she even glance in my direction. But it’s not like I tried to initiate anything either, no matter how badly I wanted to. Instead, I let the gloom fully invade my mind. It turns out I see things clearer with it around.
This is the first and last time I drag her down with me.
She greets the driver with a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes and hands over her—her parents’—card without hesitation. Fuck. I’ll find a way to pay back the Wrights. It might be a drop in the bucket for them, but I’d never be able to live with their charity. Especially not after the shit I’m about to do.
We squish onto the bench seat, and another forty-five minutes pass in strained silence before we pull in front of my complex. It’s scary how the place I longed for a few hours ago feels like a death sentence now. Against my better judgment, I keep my fingers on her thigh, drinking in the feel of her one last time.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to take this to a shop?” the driver asks.
“I’m sure. Thank you.”
He mumbles something under his breath and gets out to unhook my car. Once we get the shell of a vehicle settled in my spot, I take my keys back and head inside, not looking to see if Kori follows.
She does with barely restrained anger radiating off her in visceral waves.
“So are we just not going to talk about that?” she asks as the door latches behind her.
“What is there to talk about?”
A bark of bitter laughter falls from her lips. “So you didn’t have a complete meltdown over a couple hundred bucks?”
My jaw clenches as I resist the urge to snap back at her. No matter how hard I try or what good I can give her, she can’t understand what it took for me to get there. Or how hard it is for me to give her what she needs. Fuck, this was never going to last. I’m not the type of man who gets forevers. I’m only dragging her down—she just doesn’t realize it yet. But she will. And it’s best for both of us if she doesn’t waste time figuring it out.
“This isn’t working for me,” I tell her. My voice is void of any emotion despite the storm destroying me from the inside out.
“What isn’t?”
“You. Us. I can’t do this anymore.”
I can’t keep pretending like I’m not slowly stealing your light.
“Oh.”
That one word sucks all the air from the room.
“Okay,” she says in a hollow tone that sends a shiver of ice down my spine. “I’ll just get out of your hair, then.”
Panic thrashes in me as she heads for the door, screaming at me that I’m making a mistake. Without thinking, I call out to her before she can leave.
“Kori, wait.” My voice cracks with desperation.
She freezes but doesn’t say a word.
“Don’t think you did anything wrong. You’re more perfect than I ever dreamed was possible. I’m the one who’s not good enough for you.”
Silence hangs in the air, so taut that the smallest shuffle could shatter it. It only lasts a second before she whirls around, glaring at me with unrefined rage.
“Who do you think you are telling me who is and isn’t good enough for me?”
The venom behind those words is so concentrated I’m stunned speechless.
“You can end things—I’m not going to fight you on that—but don’t put words in my mouth, and don’t you dare try to spin this as some sort of noble sacrifice. You’re a coward, plain and simple.”
“Kori…”
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
