Page 5 of Break Away
The only reason I knew was because Bliss had FaceTimed Cade while Aura sat behind her on the couch wearing it.
Silence stretched between us as Aura picked up her jeans but didn’t put them on.
“You’re being dramatic.”
“No,” I said. “I’m being clear.”
She looked at me then, eyes guarded and mouth tight. “Clear about what?”
“If I walk out of this room and you still refuse to take this seriously, I’m done.”
She blinked, and for one second, all the attitude left her face. Then she found it again.
She set her jeans down slowly and crossed her arms, my shirt riding up just enough to remind me my hands had been taking her out of it ten minutes ago.
“You’re threatening me now?”
“No. I’m telling you the truth about what’s about to happen before I make the decision for you.”
Her face changed again, but she covered it with a scoff. “That is such a bullshit ego thing to say.”
I stared at her.
She lifted one shoulder like this was boring. Like I was boring. Like the last year hadn’t been eating me alive one secret night at a time.
“Okay, Easton,” she said. “Be done.”
The words went through me clean, with no jagged edge or dramatic explosion. Somehow, that made it worse because the truth finally stood between us without anything pretty left to hide it.
Her hands had felt real. Her mouth had felt honest. Sometimes, when the world got quiet enough, her eyes told a truth her pride kept burying.
But she didn’t believe me, and why would she?
Every time I had reached my limit before, I came back. Every time she brushed me off, I let her touch me again. Every time she pretended we were nothing, I stayed close enough to be used for the moment.
I had taught her exactly how much she could hurt me and still keep me around wanting more.
That was on me.
The realization settled through my body like ice water, cold enough to numb the last stupid piece of me still waiting for her to prove me wrong.
I had made a horrible mistake. Not in loving her, because I didn’t know how to regret that yet. The mistake was thinking she understood what it meant for me to ask her to take me seriously. Thinking she knew I didn’t have extra pieces of myself lying around.
I had taken time, money, and emotional space I barely had and handed them to her because I believed she could understand the weight of it. I thought if I was patient enough, careful enough, and gave her enough time to stop being scared, she would wake up and choose me before I had to bleed myself dry to prove I was worth choosing.
She watched me with that sharp, pretty face and those guarded eyes, and I finally understood that she really didn’t take me seriously.
I let out a slow breath and nodded.
Aura’s expression faltered. “Easton.”
“No.” My voice came out calm, which scared me more than yelling ever could have. “You don’t get to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Sound worried now that I’ve stopped chasing you.”
Her mouth closed.
