Page 112 of Fallen Hearts

“What are you gonna tell him?” she asked as the sax player began his song. Fittingly, it was a slow, sad song that perfectly fit my mood.

“That I love him,” I said, having given it a lot of thought. “Which is why I’ve got to let him go.”

“Wowza. Are you sure about this?”

“Not at all. It’s not like I can cut him off completely or go full-on no contact. He’s still my boss. I should have listened to him in the first place when he said we weren’t a good idea.”

“Don’t do that,” Delaney said as our food came. She waited until our plates were placed and the waiter left before finishing. “Don’t go backwards. What’s done is done. No sense worrying about something you can’t change.”

“True. Forward, not backward.”

“To moving forward,” she said, holding her glass in the air. “And you are braver than me.”

“I’ll toast to the first, but not the second. You are plenty brave.”

We toasted, but I could see Delaney didn’t believe me. I got it, though. A few weeks ago, I wasn’t brave enough either to tell Mason how I really felt, and because of it, we were in this limbo, which just wasn’t working for me.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked as we ate.

It was a perfect night. New friends, good food, great music. A job I loved. While I missed my family, Cedar Falls felt more and more like home every day. But the heaviness in my chest at her question underscored all of it.

“I don’t want to do it over text. We video call every Friday night?—”

Her head snapped up. “Oh really?”

I tried not to smile thinking about the nature of those calls. We’d had our last one, Mason just didn’t know it yet.

“Really. So I’m thinking of telling him then. We don’t talk as much during the week anyway, so it shouldn’t be difficult to manage the status quo until then. It’s afterward I’m worried about.”

Delaney finished chewing her red beans and rice. “It’ll be okay. There’s bound to be tough times ahead, but like you told me the first time we met, ‘I eventually got over it. And you will too. I promise.’”

“Way to use my own words against me.”

She laughed. “Just imparting your own wisdom.”

“Thanks,” I said wryly. “Your turn. Catch me up.”

Delaney talked about the job she mostly hated and the boyfriend she suspected of cheating. I wanted to tell her to dump his ass, but who was I to give relationship advice? Instead I just tried to be a good friend by listening.

But as the night went on, all I could think was that we were one day closer to Friday. One day closer to me choosing myself. So why did it feel so damn crappy?

41

MASON

“She said no.”

I’d spent over two hours in traffic and was finally free of it only to have Beck call to tell me there was a problem.

“What do you mean, she said no?” I said, my phone on speaker as I drove.

“I mean, she said no. She doesn’t want to go out tonight. I think her exact words were, ‘Thanks for the invite, but I’m going to stay in and get some work done.’”

“On a Friday night?”

“I guess. Honestly, she doesn’t seem like herself at all. This morning when I brought in a plate of breakfast from Esther?—”

“Wait a minute,” I cut him off. “You did what?”

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