Silence settles between us, thick and suffocating through the phone line. Outside, the storm lashes against the windows hard enough to rattle the glass, thunder rolling low beneath the city like a warning.
“I’m hanging up,” I say quietly, though my voice betrays me with the slightest tremor. “I… I need a minute to think about all of this.”
For a moment, Ronan says nothing.
I hear movement on his end of the line, the faint hum of traffic, the muffled sound of tires cutting through rain somewhere far away. Then he exhales, rough and tired enough to make something twist painfully in my chest.
“Don’t come in tomorrow,” he says at last. “Take the day off.”
I blink, thrown off enough that the panic clawing at my ribs loosens for half a second.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“I’m not taking a da
