Page 55 of A Solid Guide to Surviving a Situationship

“I wasn’t perfect either,” he went on. “I got busy. I got distracted. There were moments, I could’ve checked in more, asked more, tried harder to understand what was going on with you.”

He gave a small shrug.

“I just didn’t realize there was more to understand.”

That landed gently in my chest.

“And I didn’t say all that to make you feel bad about yourself,” he added. “That wasn’t the point.”

I nodded slowly.

“I know,” I said. “It just… feels like it is, you know?”

“It shouldn’t,” he replied. “Because that’s not how I see you.”

Tears welled in my eyes, looking at him with gladness.

“I actually fell for you because of that,” he said.

I frowned slightly. “Because I shut down?”

“No. because you knew yourself.”

That caught me off guard.

“You had this… presence,” he continued. “This energy. You are sure of who you are, what you like, what you don’t. You don’t try too hard to fit into spaces that weren’t for you. You just existed as yourself.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

“Not a lot of people have that,” he added. “It made you easy to admire.”

I let out a quiet breath, absorbing it.

“But I think,” he went on, but more carefully now, “when it comes to people you really care about, you kind of do the opposite. You don’t lean in… you pull back.”

I swallowed.

“You make yourself smaller,” he continued. “Quieter. Easier. Like you’re trying not to disrupt anything. And maybe you think that’s what love is. But it’s not.”

The words hit like a blow.

I looked down at my hands again, my chest feeling strangely light and heavy at the same time.

Because for the first time, it didn’t feel like I was being judged. It felt like I was being understood.

I looked up at him—really looked at him—and for the first time since I walked in, I didn’t feel the weight of what we used to be.

I just saw Francis.

“I’m glad we talked,” I said.

He smiled, soft and easy. “Me too.”

There was no hesitation in it. No second guessing. Just a quiet certainty that this reunion had been necessary.

But before I let go of that conversation, I felt like there was one last thing I needed to say.

I straightened slightly and met his eyes, something steady settling in my chest.