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That wasn’t the slightest bit true, and he could give her verse after verse to disprove what she just said, but he didn’t need to. She knew it.
“If you’re afraid of commitment, you’re probably not going to have less chance of divorce. I’m pretty sure if you look up the statistics, you’ll find that people who live together are more likely to get divorced. It’s because they don’t have the guts to make the commitment to begin with.”
He probably shouldn’t have phrased it like that, but he was annoyed at that slimy lawyer. If he wanted Chi, he could treat her like a lady and not like she wasn’t worth anything.
But that really was judging, and while Griff felt like the man deserved a little judgment, because he wasn’t giving Chi what she deserved, and he was pretty sure the man was already married, it would only make Chi more angry at him.
It would give her something to fight with him over and bond her to James. He wasn’t going to divide and conquer there. Chi was loyal if nothing else.
“I think you’re making that up. After all, common sense says that you live with somebody and you figure them out. You decide whether or not you’re compatible. Regardless, you’re not going to change my mind.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” He wasn’t quite sure what he was apologizing for. Making her angry, he supposed. When he first started, they hadn’t fought. But since James had come, he felt like she had slipped away. The gulf between them was probably his fault. He’d allowed it to stretch there, because he couldn’t stand to see her with someone else.
She narrowed her eyes in suspicion, like she wasn’t sure what he was apologizing for either.
“I don’t want to fight. I don’t want that to be our last memories. I’ve... I’ve enjoyed my time working with you, and I’m sorry to see you go. I wish you the best.” The very, very best. He supposed that’s what love did. Even though he didn’t agree with what she was doing, even though he wished that she had chosen him, even though his heart was breaking, he wanted her happiness above all.
“I hope things go well with you too,” she said, then she turned away like she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “If there’s anything in here that’s yours, you can grab it on your way out.”
“I took a bunch of stuff out earlier.” He almost told her he bought a house. But he didn’t. “Do I need to move out of the apartment? You didn’t mention that earlier.”
“I’m going to be selling the place. You probably should. Who knows what the new owner is going to want to do with it.”
“Yeah. Who knows.”
He curled his fingers into fists, then shoved his hands in his pockets. He wanted to grab her, shake her, get some sense into her head, or maybe kiss her senseless. Yeah, that last, that’s what he really wanted to do. But there was certainly no way that was going to happen. He wasn’t going to force a kiss on her that she didn’t want. That wasn’t what he wanted. It wouldn’t be any fun if he was kissing Chi, and he was the only one enjoying it.
He hated that they were parting on a sour note, but he didn’t know what to do to fix it. He couldn’t tell her she was making a good decision, and he’d already wished her well. He wasn’t going to let her know how he felt, there was no point. She’d already made her decision, and it wasn’t him.
Anything he said along those lines would sound the same as anything he said along the lines of not wanting her to go. It was just for his own selfish gain.
He didn’t want to be selfish. Especially when it came to Chi. He wanted to do whatever was best for her.
“I guess maybe I’ll see you around. Maybe I won’t,” he said, and he didn’t really wait for her to say anything else before he walked to the back door and stepped out.
A lot of times in the evening when he got done early, the kid that he had been mentoring, if a person could slap their informal conversations with such a label, would be hanging around, and they’d walk to the beach, chatting or maybe just standing in silence.
But he didn’t see Rodney standing anywhere, didn’t see the black coat that he’d taken to wearing, the Gothic look that seemed to be cool but was just an open door into a spirit world that most people didn’t understand.
Griff himself didn’t understand it. He just knew that the Bible clearly said not to give place to the devil. That there was a spiritual warfare going on, and that even the Archangel Michael, one of the most powerful beings in the created world, would not contest with the devil but instead had the Lord rebuke Satan.
If the Archangel didn’t want to mess with Satan, Griff figured that any human was foolish to open up their heart and mind to such a thing.
“Hey,” a voice called from between two buildings as Griff walked down the sidewalk toward the lake. He had his hands shoved in his pockets although it was still unseasonably warm.
“Rodney. Didn’t see you there.” He spoke casually, trying not to show that he was relieved to see him. He worried about Rodney.
Rodney hadn’t said exactly what was wrong, other than there were issues with his parents. He came from a wealthy family, his dad worked in Chicago, and the family made their main residence at their beach house near Blueberry Beach.
But Rodney hung out in Strawberry Sands. Griff hadn’t figured out quite what had set him off, but he’d gone from being a fairly normal kid to one who slunk around, wearing black and playing fast and loose with the spirit world.
“Yeah, I was talking to a friend. I wasn’t sure whether you’d be out tonight or not. Seemed like the diner was pretty busy.”
“It is. Was. It’s the last day that it will be open, since Chi is moving to Chicago.”
“She’s really shutting it down?” Rodney asked, falling into step beside him as they continued walking toward the beach.
“Says she is.” A gust of wind blew, and Griff shoved his hands even further in his pockets.
