"You did," she cuts in. "And I don't really care."
"Look, let's talk about this."
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Paige," I say, walking after her. "We need to—"
She spins on me.
"What, Ben? What is there to talk about?" She throws up her hands. "You don't think we should have done this. Fine. Got it."
"I didn't mean it like that," I say, though the truth is that I did.
She narrows her eyes.
"You meant what, exactly?"
"I meant, I don't think we should have done something we're going to regret."
She looks at me steadily, her expression still hard.
"Okay," she says finally. "Let's pretend we didn't."
"But—"
"That's what you want, right? To take it back? Great, you're off the hook. Poof, it's gone." She waves her hands in the air. "You can leave now. And don't worry, Ben. Your friendship with Jason is safe."
I don't know what to say.
The way she's looking at me right now is awful.
"I'm sorry," I say.
Her jaw clenches, and her nostrils flare.
"Don't be. It was nothing, remember?" she says, then turns to walk away.
"Paige."
"Just go, Ben. Technically, you own the building, but I'm renting, and I don't want you here. Leave."
She walks into the back room.
I stand there a moment, wondering what the hell just happened.
"Fuck," I mutter.
I don't know what the hell to do.
And I'm not sure if walking out right now is the best thing or the worst thing.
When it's obvious she's not coming back out to talk to me, I turn to the door.
And now you're a fucking coward, because instead of trying harder to fix this, to figure out how to make this right, I take the easy way out and walk out the door.
Because she's right. My friendship with Jason is important. He's more than a friend to me, he's a brother. He's my family. The only real family I've ever had.
And I might've just thrown that out the window tonight.
