Page 68 of Nash
"Don't answer me. Answer yourself." He holds my eyes. "If the answer is yes, then fix it, son. Before she decides you already gave her your answer."
My chest tightens.
"I pulled back first." My jaw sets. "I kissed her. Then I pulled back. This is my fault."
"Then fix it."
"It's complicated."
"It's exactly that simple. The complicated part is what you're carrying." He taps the counter once with his knuckle. "You just have to stop pretending she doesn't matter."
East shuffles around the corner, rubbing his face with one hand, his hair standing in four directions.
"Coffee," he says.
I pour him a mug. He drinks half of it standing at the counter with his eyes closed, opens them, looks at me, looks at James, and reads the room in two seconds.
"We talking about Ruby?"
James picks up his mug and walks toward the door. He pauses beside me, grips my shoulder once, hard enough to register through the cut.
"Go do your job," he says.
He leaves. East leans against the counter and crosses his arms.
"She's miserable, brother."
"I know."
"Do you know why?"
"Because I pulled back."
"That's half of it." East sets his mug down. "She came to the fight circuit last Friday."
My whole body goes still.
"Kyle was on her building," I say. My voice drops. "How did she get out?"
"Slipped out the back stairwell. Drove her car. Took the long route past the warehouses." East watches my face. "Kyle didn't clock it until she was already gone."
My fist clenches against the counter. Kyle missed her. With the windshield photos, with the threat escalating, Kyle missed her leaving her own building. That conversation is coming, but it's not happening now.
"She saw your bike in the lot," East says. "She saw you inside. With Naya."
The coffee maker drips into the silence.
"She saw Naya touch your arm. She saw you press the headband." His voice is steady. "She thinks Naya is yours, Nash. She thinks the headband belongs to a woman you're in love with and the kiss was a mistake you corrected."
My hand grips the counter. The edge bites into my palm. "That's—"
"I know. You know. But Ruby doesn't. What she saw looked clean from where she was standing."
"How do you know this?"
"Candace. Last night."
I set my mug on the counter. The ceramic hits harder than I intend.
