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My path forward is clear. I need to start accepting invitations from my friends again. Stop planning my life around a nightly video call. While he moves forward with his life in New York, I need to do the same here.
But we’ve paid the price. There’s a new distance between us, one I don’t like, but I’m not sure if there’s any hope for spanning it. For making this work. I can’t sit around waiting for him to toss me a scrap of himself. He tried to warn me weeks ago, but the high of Switzerland and being with him kept me from actually processing what he said on the plane back to the States.
“I work a lot, Chari.”
Of course he does, I thought at the time.That’s totally fine.
“You can ask Hayden when you meet him. Or talk to my family. Even your brother. Any one of them will tell you, Angel, Inc. is like my baby.”
And still, I shrugged off his words.We’ll make it work, I thought. He cares about me, and that’s all that matters.
So naive.
“Hey, tiger,” he says, Enzo’s handsome face flashing onto the screen.
I prop the phone on my computer.
“Hold on a sec.”
Turning off the show I was watching when he called, I take in the casual navy T-shirt and damp hair.
“Went for a swim?” I ask, wishing I could run my hands through that tousled mass of sexy darkness. It seems I do a lot of wishing when it comes to Enzo.
“Yeah,” he says.
Looks like he’s sitting at his dining room table. Working, no doubt.
“How was your weekend?”
I relay everything since Friday, including possible plans for my future. He fills me in on what’s happening with Angel.
On one hand, it’s a comfortable conversation between two people who know each other’s daily lives well. On the other, there’s a tension between us that hasn’t totally eased since our fight about Rob. But I’m determined not to go there, to take this as it comes and stop overanalyzing what could be. I’ve decided my life is not going to be about Enzo, but that doesn’t mean Enzo can’t be a part of my life.
But then he drops a bombshell.
“I do have some bad news,” he says. His frown is more telling than his words. He looks as if the lab tech just told him there was a problem with the formula. Part concerned, part thoughtful, and definitely not at ease.
“What’s that?”
I fluff a pillow behind my head, waiting for him to continue.
“Chari?”
Looking back at the screen, I realize I’ve been purposefully avoiding him. Sensing something was happening and knowing I wouldn’t like whatever he has to say.
“Unfortunately, I’m going to have to cancel next weekend.”
I knew it before the words left his mouth. He was supposed to send a driver on Friday. The plan was for me to spend the whole weekend in New York. Maybe that’s why I’ve been able to focus so much better this last week, knowing we’d see each other soon enough.
But my carefully built house of cards comes crashing down with his words.
“I have to head up to Rochester. Long story, but it has to do with the vodka antidote. I swear, moving into spirits will be the death of me.”
And Enzo will be the death ofme.
Don’t say it, Chari. Don’t.
“Maybe I could come with you?”
