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“You gonna be okay?” I asked softly.

He smirked, but it didn’t feel real. “I don’t have a choice.”

I sat up.

He stood, pulled on sweatpants, and headed toward the bathroom.

I followed him out of habit. Steam filled the glass walls as we showered quietly, the kind of silence that felt more intimate than conversation.

Finally, I said it.

“I know you are going through something, but… We can’t keep doing this.”

He laughed low. “Doing what?”

“This sneaking around. I got a life outside of you now.”

“You’re right,” he said quietly.

That was it.

He accepted it, and somehow that hurt worse, but I still stayed in that room with him, proving I was lying to myself.

After we got dressed, I curled up back in bed while he worked at the table, laptop open, coffee beside him. Like nothing had happened.

Eventually, exhaustion won, and I drifted off.

When I woke up, he was gone. Breakfast waited for me, warm under a silver cover, and a note. My stomach dropped when I saw my name in his handwriting.

I didn’t wanna read it, but I did.

Naomi,

I know you want distance.

I know you want your new life without me.

I’m trying to let go of everything that used to belong to me.

You’re the only part that still feels real.

I’m not asking you to wait for me.

I’m not asking you to betray your life for mine.

I’m just telling you the truth.

Everything around me is changing, and I don’t know where I fit in it yet.

You’ve always understood me without me having to explain myself. That’s rare.

I won’t chase you if you walk away.

But I won’t pretend I don’t feel the difference when you’re gone either.

Thank you for last night.

Thank you for seeing me.