Page 17 of One Room Vacancy

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He doesn’t laugh. “Sage.”

I close my eyes. “Drop it.”

“No.”

His fingers trace idle shapes along my side, gentle in a way that makes my chest ache. “You said ‘always have.’ Like…like you meant it.”

I shrug, trying to stay casual even though my throat feels tight. “It’s a figure of speech. I also said I was gonna sleep with Gen, remember?”

“That was a joke.”

“So was this.”

He exhales sharply, shifts to look at me. “I’m not with Kara.”

I blink up at the ceiling. “Okay.”

“I’m not going back to her.”

I turn my head, just enough to meet his eyes. There’s something real there—something raw enough that it makes it hard to breathe.

“We don’t have to stop this,” he says, quieter now. “If it’s not nothing for you…it’s not nothing for me either.”

God, I want to believe him.

I want to believe this could actually be different.

So, I nod. Just once. “Okay.”

He pulls out before relaxing beside me, drawing me in tighter, wrapping around me like it’s instinct.

And for the first time in forever, I let him.

I let myself be held.

Let myself feel like maybe, just maybe, this won’t break me.

I wake slowly, blinking into the soft morning light filtering through the hotel curtains.

His arm’s still around me, his chest pressed to my back.

He stayed.

I should feel good about that, but there’s a heaviness in my chest I can’t shake.

And then?—

Knocking.

Sharp, rapid, urgent.

“SAGE?” Savannah’s voice, muffled but unmistakable.

And underneath it?—

Gabe’s phone ringing.

The name lighting up the screen in bold, unforgiving letters:Kara.

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