Page 87 of Eat Slay Love

Trying toownher.

Trying tobendher to my will.

But was that the mistake?

Was the real answer not making her come to me, butgoing to her?

The thought lodged in my chest like a blade.

Well. . .this is interesting. I don’t think. . .I know how to do this. . .

I had never chased a woman in my life. Never restructured my world around someone else. But fuck. . .wasn’t that exactly what I wanted from her?

I wanted her tochooseme, to see a future in me, totrustthat I wasn’t just some passing storm in her life.

So maybe it wasn’t aboutmakingher stay.

Maybe it was aboutshowingher that I would go anywhere.

That I would follow her.

Even to California.

Even to the ends of the earth.

But even as that realization settled in, a deeper, darker fear curled at the edges of my thoughts.

What ifthatwasn’t the problem?

What if it weren’t about logistics, about control, about where we lived or how we could make this work?

What if she just. . didn’t feel the same?

The idea cracked something in me.

So fast, I had gone all in, no hesitation.

I had seen the future so clearly—dating, engagement, marriage. A life where I worshiped her body for decades, where I woke up every morning knowing she was mine.

But what if I was the only one who saw it?

What if I was the only onefalling?

I exhaled sharply, my grip tightening on her hip.

For the first time since I met her, I feltuncertain.

And I fuckinghatedit.

But for Rae, I would wait.

She blinked at me. “Fabien. . .I just can’t. . .stay in New York. . .but I do like you. . .so much it. . .scares me.”

My heart warmed. “You do?”

“Yes.”

“So. . .” I did my best to not grumble. “Don’t tell me that I’ll need to go to California.”

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