Page 128 of Smoke and Glitter

Some tension leaves Bex's shoulders.

"I got farther than I did before." I lean forward and rest my forearms against my thighs. "Told her things I should've told her months ago."

Bex moves to the chair across from me and sits without taking off her jacket.

"What happened?"

"She asked what she meant to me."

My hands clasp loosely between my knees.

"And?"

I look at the floor.

"I stopped."

The office goes quiet except for the bass coming through the wall from the main room.

Bex doesn't try to tell me why. She doesn't ask whether I was scared or whether I panicked or whether I need another goddamn revelation.

She just sits there.

"I wanted to answer her," I say. "That's the worst part. I wasn't confused. I wasn't deciding."

My hands tighten together.

"I had the words."

Bex rests the clipboard across her thighs. "But you couldn't say them to her."

I shake my head.

For a while neither of us talks.

Then I look at the plate again.

At SMOKE cut permanently into brass.

"I love her."

Bex goes completely still.

The words are already out, so I wait for whatever I've spent months acting like they might do to me.

Nothing.

The music keeps playing.

Bex is still sitting in the same chair.

My chest still works.

She sets the clipboard on the edge of my desk.

"Okay."

I look at her. "Okay?"