Page 90 of Phoenix

“Great. Thanks for verifying. I’ll see you next week. Bye.”

She hangs up the call and I come back out into the room.

“So you’re still heading back?” I ask, leaning against the bathroom doorframe. Somehow I thought maybe, especially after last night, she’d stay.

She pulls the sheet up to cover her breasts, as if she’s suddenly self-conscious. “Yeah. My flight is Saturday morning. That was the nurse who makes the ER rotation. She needed to make sure I was working on Monday.”

“Are you sure you want to go back?” I ask, point blank.

“Well, yes. That’s where my job is. Where my brother is when he’s not traveling. I have to go back,” she responds, but there is no fire in her eyes, as if she’s repeating a planned response.

“I’m sorry, Phoenix, but I call bullshit on that.”

She sits up straighter. “What?”

“There’s life in your eyes here. Why do you think you chose Savannah to escape to when you needed time away? Amelia is here, Grayson, Cadence...me.” I lay it out bare.

“We’re still in the glow of sex, Case. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Nora, I think we both know it’s always been more than fucking each other’s brains out, and if you can sit here and tell me you don’t feel it, you’re kidding yourself.” I push off the wall and go into the kitchen to make coffee, leaving her to consider what I’ve just said.

***

The pot of coffee hasn’t even completely brewed when she steps into the kitchen, completely dressed, with her purse over her shoulder.

“You know I like you, right, Case?” she says softly.

I cross my arms and lean against the counter. “And I like you. I don’t understand where the problem lies in this scenario.”

“My life is in San Diego. Work, my brother...”

“I know. You’ve said that already. It sounds like bullshit,” I say, uncaring that I sound cold.

“You want me to stay? That’s what you’re saying now? We went from casual sex to you asking me to stay in Georgia? Am I understanding that correctly?” she says, with a bit of heat to her words.

“I’m asking, for once, you make a decision that makes you happy. Not one you think is your obligation, and not one that is the easy choice. If it is to be here, in Savannah, and never speak to me again, do that. If it is going back to California, do that. If it is staying here and seeing me every single day, do that. But make sure YOU are happy, because, Phoenix, your fire burns out any time you mention going home.”

Nora

You’re right.

I feel alive here.

I want to be here.

I want to say.

I want to scream these things at him, shout them until I’m red in the face, but I can’t. My broken heart won’t let me. My fear won’t let me. I can’t get attached to a cop. I can’t get attached to someone who could leave me in an instant.

“You’re wrong,” I say instead. That’s all I can say.

“No. I’ve never been more right.” He pours himself a cup of coffee then pours one for me. “You told me in our very first conversation that you loved to write. That you had a dream one day of being a poet for a living.”

“That’s a pipe dream, Case. That’s just talk.”

“Says who?”

“My bills. My life. Me.”

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