Page 44 of Lovesick

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Three days later, I had made my decision.

I didn’t come to it lightly. I didn’t wake up with clarity or have a movie-moment epiphany. It came slowly, through conversations with Leann, through the stillness between tasks at work, and the silence in my apartment when I was alone. I kept thinking about what she said, about how people change, and how sometimes, they do it because they care.

And Dean had changed.

I saw it in his expression. In his eyes. They weren’t dark anymore. There was emotion. Light. And I saw it in how he listened more. To everyone in the office. He took his time, sat in the break room a little longer to chitchat with his employees. He accepted ideas and even critique. Though he wasn’t exactly warm because his work was still extremely stressful at times, but he wasn’t ice anymore either. He was trying.

Because of me.

And I would’ve been lying to myself if I said that didn’t mean something.

So by the end of the workday, I found myself standing outside his office, heart thudding too loudly, palm slightly damp as I raised my hand to knock.

The door was half-open. I peeked in.

Dean was at his desk, eyes locked on his screen, brows slightly drawn the way they always were when he was deep in thought. His tie was loosened, the top button undone, sleeves rolled up. He looked tired.

I knocked once.

His head lifted immediately. When his eyes met mine, his expression shifted from surprised to unreadable. He didn’t speak, just watched me.

“Can I come in?” I asked, keeping my voice steady.

He stood almost instantly. “Yeah. Of course.”

I stepped inside, closing the door behind me. I didn’t move closer, needing to say what I had to say first.

“I’ve been thinking,” I said quietly.

His gaze didn’t waver. “Okay.”

“About what you asked me. About the dinner.”

Dean nodded once, his hands falling into his pockets. But he didn’t speak. He waited.

I took a breath. “I said no because I was scared. Because I thought you hadn’t changed. And because I didn’t trust myself not to fall into the same pattern again.”

His jaw flexed.

“But I was wrong,” I added. “You arechanging. I see it. Everyone sees it.”

That caught something in him. A flicker in his eyes. The faintest pull at his mouth.

I stepped a little closer. “Leann told me how you’ve been lately. How the whole office feels different when you’re around now. How…lighter things feel. And it made me realize something,” I said softly, watching as he lowered his head as if he didn’t know what to do with my words. “I want to go to that dinner with you.”

His head snapped back up, eyes locked on mine.

“I want to say yes,” I continued. “Not because I’ve forgotten the past. Not because it didn’t hurt. But because I believe people can grow. And maybe…maybe I want to see who you are now. Whowecould be.”

The silence that followed was bearable. There was no heaviness. No pressure. Just us, looking at each other with hope in our eyes.

Dean stepped forward slowly, like he didn’t want to scare me away.

“Are you sure?” he asked, voice quiet but serious.

“No,” I admitted. “But I think that’s what makes it real.”

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