Page 154 of Can't Always Get What You Want

He moves past me, giving me one last chance to stop him.

I don’t.

Can’t!

And then he’s at the door…

…Hand on the knob.

He turns his handsome face and gives me one last look. “For what it’s worth, I really did try. But you can’t always get what you want.”

The words hit like a punch to the chest because I know for a fact he did try. So hard. Luca is amazing—the most amazing man I’ve ever had the privilege to know and I’m letting my pride and ego and fear get in my way.

I open my mouth. Try to speak. To stop him.

But Luca’s already backing away, jaw tight, eyes on the floor like looking at me might break him.

“I’ll go,” he says quietly, voice rough. “You two need to talk.”

And then he’s out the door.

Gone.

It clicks shut behind him and the silence rushes in, loud and suffocating.

Gio doesn’t follow him.

He just stands here watching me, face unreadable. Disappointed.

But he stays with me—of course he does.

He’s my brother.

I turn away from him so he can’t see the tears about to spill from my eyes and I inhale a steady breath; my apartment that still smells like Luca’s cologne. Ramen.

The candle.

The bouquet of flowers on the counter are wilting slowly in their plastic wrap and I’m filled with the sudden urge to throw them in the trash.

Ihatethem.

I love them.

But mostly?

I have no one to blame for this mess but myself.

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Idon’t look at him—not yet. I can’t. If I do, I’ll start bawling like a baby. Once that train leaves the station, it’ll flatten everything in its path.

Luca’s footsteps are gone.

My apartment, once warm and loud with his presence, feels like a vacuum now. Like the oxygen has left the building with him.

I stare at the flowers on the counter, not seeing them. I should put them in water. I should do a lot of things.

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