Page 95 of Meet Me in the Valley
“Look at us!” she spits back. “This is not us, Logan.” Her finger points back and forth between our chests. “We’re in way over our heads. I can fight until I’m blue in the face with anyone else in the world, but I refuse to do that with you.”
In all our years of friendship, we’ve never fought. Not like this. I suppose it’s one of the reasons why we’ve never crossed the line. Why ruin what we have if it leads to this type of pain? I know for certain it’s why I don’t do girlfriends. The back and forth is exhausting. The screaming matches, the disappointment. It’s all too familiar. Way too close to home.
“With the absolute shit storm my life is right now, the last thing I need is to lose you. To lose your friendship. I need you more than ever inthatcapacity. I will not lose you as my friend.”
She says it with total conviction, but it guts me all the same. The word ‘friend’ lands like a slap to the face. My chest rises and falls with quick, shallow breaths as I try to pretend that’s enough. That it wouldn’t break me to stand beside her as just that. But it would. Fuck, it already is.
We stand here, eyes locked, like we’re silently begging the moment to shift. For something—anything—to pull us back to who we were before the lines blurred. But it’s slipping fast. And maybe she’s right. Maybe we were never meant to hold this much weight.
“Why are you being like this?” I ask, voice rising, cracking beneath the pressure. “Hasn’t this weekend shown you I’m trying? That I’mchanging? Why are you so afr?—”
“I’m moving.”
The words hit like a punch to the chest. I take a step back, like distance might soften the blow.
She’s leaving?
My legs suddenly feel unsteady, and I drop onto the arm of the couch with a defeated thud. My body needs something solid to hold me up. Everything in the room feels off-balance now. Including me.
“My mom called me early this morning while you were asleep. She thought I was Nora.”
Shit.
Tia moves to sit on the couch, burying her face in her hands. The silence in the room is deafening. On one hand, I want to strangle her for being so fucking stubborn about us. I know I fucked up, but the way she’s leading me to believe she’s giving up on us kills me. And the other part of me wants to scoop her up in my arms and take her away from all the suffering.
“I told my dad I’m moving back to Oakwood Valley. I’ve already emailed Roy my notice. I leave in two weeks.”
Painful memories blindside me. I try to push them out, but they come at me full force. It’s too tough to ignore.
“I’m leaving, baby.”
“But why? Are we not enough for you?”
“That’s not it.”
“Then what is it?”
“I have to go. Take care of your father. You’re old enough to be the man of the house. Look after him.”
“But Mom! Wait! Don’t go!”
Tears form behind my eyes, and I shut them tight to keep them at bay. Maybe I’m a fool, like my father—loving women who leave us, anyway.
Tia rises slowly and paces to the bathroom. I let it unfold, frozen to the arm of the couch, listening to the clatter of her toiletries and whatever else she left on the counter being thrown into a bag.
I watch her pack the heels she wore for me on that first night—still able to feel the sting of her stiletto digging into my shoulder as I devoured her. I watch her pack the silky black dress she stripped off for me before I lost myself inside of her.
She zips our entire weekend into one suitcase, closing it up and locking it away like it never happened. It’s not until she pulls the handle up and walks toward the door that I snap out of my trance.
“Oh, no you don’t. You don’t get to walk away from me after everything that’s happened!” I cry out to her. My voice breaks in a whisper. “We can’t take it back.”
Her tears fall, but she makes no move to come to me. We stand at a painful distance, teetering on the edge of this terrifying unknown. We threw ourselves in without care of the consequences. And now we’ve both been burned.
“I can’t do this with you right now, Logan. I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
I want to move. I want to throw myself between her and the door, block her path,makeher stay. Every nerve in my body screams at me to stop her.
That’s your woman walking out. Go get her.
