Page 61 of Collateral Love
“You runnin’,” he said.
“Always,” I shot back. “That’s why I’m still alive.”
We walked out of the engineering building together.
In the stairwell, our footsteps echoed. The campus was hushed. Outside, the air was cold enough to sting my lungs.
We stopped by my car.
“Thanks,” I said.
“For what?”
“For letting me crack without making it a thing.”
His mouth curved slightly. “Newsflash, YaYa, it is a thing.”
“I mean, without weaponizing it,” I corrected.
He nodded once. “I don’t ever use your truth against you.”
My chest did that stupid ache again.
“Zay,” I said.
“Yeah?”
“You can’t look at me like that,” I said. “Like I’m… breakable.”
He shook his head. “That’s not what I see.”
“What do you see then?”
“Structural integrity,” he said. “With stress fractures.”
I rolled my eyes even as my lips twitched. “Leave it to your ass to make jokes sound like a construction site.”
I opened the door, hand on the handle.
“Zay?”
He exhaled. “Yeah, lil’ mama?”
“I’m not used to people seeing me and still staying,” I said quietly.
He held my gaze, all the bullshit stripped away for a second.
“Get used to it,” he said.
I got in the car before I could ask what the hell that meant.
I drove home with my fingers tight around the steering wheel, the streetlights washing everything in orange and shadow.
I told myself the trembling in my hands was just adrenaline.
But deep down, I knew better.
Something had shifted.
