“Anything else you wanted to say?”
“Why are you doing this? I don’t understand why you’d want to throw away our friendship. Do you need more time? Tell me what to do to make this right and I’ll fix it.”
She slowly put the beer down. The only sign she was affected by him was the way she wrapped her arms around her chest, hugging tight, as if she was trying to protect herself. Regret flowed and the numbness inside melted away to explode back into a fiery pain that hurt every part of his body. She was killing him. All he craved to do was take her in his arms, make her happy, make her laugh. But this was different from when she left David.
Now she looked at him like he was her very worst nightmare.
“You can’t fix this,” she finally said. Those blue eyes remained calm. “I don’t think you really understand, Wolfe. We’re not children anymore. I can’t just flick a magic wand and make myself not love you anymore. I can’t share a beer and a burger and not want to take you into my bed and give you everything I am.”
“Sweetheart, we’ll work it out. With time, things will get better, like they were. I swear.”
She let out a humorless laugh. “No, it won’t. Not if I keep seeing you and reminding myself of what I can never have. It’s over between us. All of it. The friendship, the casual get-togethers, the texts and the calls and the emails. I need you to go away and stay away. I don’t want to be your friend anymore.”
Panic clutched at his chest, making it difficult to breathe. “You don’t mean that. You’re still pissed off and hurt, and I get it, but I’m not going anywhere. How can you walk away from what we have together? Don’t you want to fight for it?”
“I could ask the same of you.”
They stared at each other in a standoff. He slammed the beer down and shoved his fingers through his hair. “This is different,” he gritted out. “Fuck, I told you why I didn’t want to do this! You’re punishing both of us for something I have no control over. I’m trying to protect you!”
A sad smile curved her lips. “No. You’re trying to protect yourself. For a man so brave and strong and pure of heart, you’re taking the coward’s way out. You’ve hurt me by not fighting for us. Hiding behind a lie won’t make it go away. I’m sorry if you can’t get everything you want, but I’m not a consolation prize. I played all my cards and I lost, and now I’m done. With you. With us. You’ll have to find someone else to hang with. Someone else to drink with and play darts with and pretend you’re something you’re not with. Because I’m out.”
She walked away and opened the door. His mouth dropped open. She was throwing him out? She didn’t want to see him anymore? The floor tilted up and a fierce roaring beat in his ears like a flurry of birds’ wings, making everything fuzzy and disorienting. He couldn’t lose her.
He’d die without her.
“Go home, Wolfe. Please don’t try to contact me. I need the time to heal and learn to live without you.”
“Don’t do this—” His voice broke, so he tried again. “Please.”
“This isn’t a punishment. It’s just what I have to do.”
He didn’t know how long he stood there. She waited him out, refusing to meet his gaze, until he managed to walk across the floor and stop beside her. “Gen.”
She said nothing.
Wolfe left.
When the door shut behind him, he realized maybe there was something even worse than what had happened in his past.
“HONEY, WHAT’S WRONG? YOUR mother and I are worried.”
Gen forced a smile at her parents. She dragged a fork through her pasta, but her appetite had been sorely lacking since Wolfe left a few nights ago. A bone-deep sense of loss haunted her, and she struggled to get to the other side. Funny, she’d felt nothing like this when she left David. As if half of her heart had been cut out and given to someone who didn’t want it.
She’d come so close to breaking and taking whatever he wanted to give her. But Gen knew it would destroy her slowly. Much better to rip off the Band-Aid and suffer intense but shorter pain. At least, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
“Just working some stuff out.”
“You’re happy being back at the hospital though, right?” her father asked.
“Yes.” Returning to her medical career was the first step. Now she focused on what she wanted but refused to put herself back in an unhealthy place where work ruled every second and thought. She could be successful but still have a life. Without David, she relished restoring her own power, making decisions and choices on her own. She’d finally come full circle.
“It’s Wolfe, isn’t it?”
She stared at her mother. Maria clasped her hands on the table, meeting her gaze directly. Her father gasped. “That boy is only a friend. She just got over David! It has nothing to do with Wolfe.”
“Yes, it does.”
Her admission cut through her father’s outburst like a bullet. Maria nodded slowly. “I suspected. The way you kept sneaking glances at one another. The joy on your faces.” She smiled. “I remember when your father and I fell hard for each other it was the same way. Hard to keep that type of love hidden from the world.”
“Love? Have I stepped into the twilight zone?” her father said. “When did you and Wolfe become more than friends? Is he the reason you broke off with David? Did he hurt you in some way? I’ll kill him—I swear, I’ll go find him right now.”