Page 224 of Once in a Lifetime, Part 2

Chris blinked. “Oh… well. That’s good, right?”

“No,” Ody said, meeting his blue eyes. “It’s not.”

They both stilled.

“He said it so I wouldn’t get upset. But it’s his dream. And I don’t want to be the reason he gives that up.”

The words hung there. Neither of them rushed to fill the silence.

“He asked me to go with him.”

“What?” they both said at once.

“I don’t have money. No job there. My family’s here. You guys. My studies…” He shook his head. “I can’t just leave.”

“Yeah… you can’t just leave everything behind like that,” Steve agreed.

Ody looked down, rubbing his thumb against his palm. “But I feel like shit. Instead of being happy for him, I’m just thinking about how I don’t want him to go.” He swallowed. “I don’t want to lose him.”

Steve glanced at Chris, then back at Ody.

“Just when everything finally felt right… when we were finally okay…” His expression faltered. “I told him he needs to figure out what he wants. Then we’ll see what happens with us.”

Steve ran a hand over his buzz cut. “Look… if this is really his dream, like you’re saying, it’s going to be hard for him not to go.”

Ody nodded, eyes still down.

Steve sighed. “I don’t even know what to say, man. It’s all those cliché lines from movies, right? ‘If you love him, chase him.’ ‘If he loves you, he’ll stay.’ Or… ‘If you love him, let him go.’” He gave a small, helpless shrug. “They all sound right. And completely useless at the same time.”

A faint, humorless huff left Ody.

“What I do think is this,” Steve went on, “if he loves you enough to give up his dream, he’ll stay. If his dream comes first… he’ll go. Simple as that.”

Chris stayed quiet, watching him.

“He told me right away he’s not going.”

“Yeah,” Steve replied, “but you think he said that because he saw how upset you were.”

Chris tilted his head. “Using that logic… we could say the same about Ody.”

Steve frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Chris said calmly, “if Ody loves him enough to make sacrifices, he’ll go with him. If everything here matters more… he stays.”

“That’s not the same.”

“It is.”

“It’s not, Chris,” Steve shot back. “Ody has a life here. What does Mano have? What is he losing by leaving? If I were him, I’d be gone already. It’s his dream.”

“And if you had Danae?”

Steve froze.

Chris kept his eyes on him. “The issue isn’t just the offer Mano got. Or the sacrifices Ody would have to make. It’s that they have each other.” His gaze flicked to Ody. “And if Mano leaves… they don’t. It’s that simple.”

No one said anything.