And then he turned into her thoughts with a raised voice she could hardly recognize as his, a distant voice that seemed averse is carrying the burden of either certainty of commitment. And she closed her eyes against the tightening of her heart.
He had no idea what she wanted.
she needed to tell him. That he was not a second choice.
As she reached for her phone, she encountered an unexpected message.
From Byron: think I need some space. Maybe this was all too much. I don’t want to
to be a placeholder for some
someone else’s ghost”
Suddenly, everything felt quiet. Too quiet. Empty.
And the realized that in walking away from Devlin, she might have lost something else.
Something real Something she was not ready to lose.
Despondently, the stared at the message on her phone, allowing every word to crash into her. Byron: “Maybe this was all too much. I don’t want to be a placeholder for someone else’s ghost
Those words echoed in her mind Het bands trembled as she read it again.
She had turned down in, but in doing so, had she actually pushed Byron away as well?
She had spent too long grappling with her past, trying to figure out just who she was and what she wanted, that she had noticed how much she was losing in the present. Byron had always been with her, steady and patient, but it now appeared that he was slipping through her fingers, never to be returned.
jennifer leaned back and stared out at the empty space in front of her. Devlin was a rusty name from the past, her and Byron were good, quiet together now, the anchor that she needed had dried away.
- “I’m sorry, Byron I was wrong. You mean more to me than you
Then, the typed the message to go in a hurry, fingers flying over the keys as they were faster than the speedel thought.” know. Please, don’t leave me now,” she sai
Now, she just waited, hoping it was not too late,
pressed send
But now that we’re finally together, it really feels impossible.”
She putued her lips and tried to look fine. “And instead of putting things right, we have stitched the conversations” “Right now, you can say I avold you,” la said
In was an easy thing because Byron spent most of lite in front of the common people. To be very precise, this wil
It was understood from everything that she prefented staying at the contage and would definitely do the things just that little way she liked
Lone of the very best kinds of social life he could have
Byron, of all people, stood our Thud’s very bad”
Andla wid. “Of course,
IL
Days alter Jenter had turned down Devlin’s proposal, looked heavy and quiet on the outside, and, most importantly, also carried inside it inde i like a huge cop for the heart, falling from a place that was elevated, and sluttered with pieces all over, not to be found. The coffee was bitter, the warm bed, no comfort, and the sunlight was devoid of laughter And the worst part was Byron’s drifting away.
sit with her much, didn’t stay
As first, the thought it was all is he had He still came to the house, checked locks and cameras as always, but stayed a longer than necessary. He didn’t sit w
so the early hours, talking about the good old times Hugs shortened, eyes became distant
The pain was growing in the heart of Jennifer.
One night, she sat alone for dinner and said, “What I do? I can’t pretend anymore “Bylon,” the unitly called-
He looked up, wiping his hands in a rag. “Hey Everything alright?
Taking a deep breath, she said. “Can we talk”
Hesitated before nodding They sat on the porch steps,
*With that, she went outside and found Byron, working under the hood of his truck
other times before, but this was different. There was too much spare between them now, and it was filled with
uncomfortable silence–not even something that could be expressed easily in words
“You’ve not been around me lately,” Jennifer said, and she continued, with a trembling voice, “ever since that night.”
