Say It or Stop It
552 Words
The flight back was quiet.
Not awkward. Not angry.
Just quiet in that dangerous way where too many thoughts are happening at once.
We sat side by side in first class, close enough for our arms to touch, but neither of us moved. He was looking out the window. I was pretending to read something on my phone.
Neither of us was actually doing either.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” Ethan said suddenly.
I looked up. “I’ve been sitting right next to you.”
“You know what I mean.”
I sighed and leaned back in my seat. “I’m not avoiding you. I’m just… trying to think.”
“About what?”
“About us.”
He turned to me fully now. “There is no ‘us’, Ava. Not officially.”
“That’s the problem,” I said quietly. “Everything we’re doing feels real, but nothing about it actually is.”
His jaw tightened. “It feels real to me.”
That sentence hit harder than I expected.
“Then say it,” I said before I could stop myself.
He frowned. “Say what?”
“Say what you actually want. Not the careful version. Not the billionaire version. The real one.”
Silence filled the space between us.
People were around. Flight attendants. Passengers. But it felt like we were the only two in the world.
“I want you,” he said finally. Low voice. Honest. No drama.
My heart skipped in a way that wasn’t even cute anymore. It was scary.
“Ethan…”
“I want you without cameras. Without contracts. Without pretending this is just temporary.”
I swallowed. “That’s not fair.”
“Why?”
“Because you know I feel something too. And you’re saying all this knowing there’s an end date.”
He looked away for a second. “I don’t want an end date anymore.”
That made my chest ache.
“You can’t just rewrite reality,” I said softly. “This is your world, Ethan. I just stepped into it.”
He turned back to me. “Then stay.”
I laughed, but it came out shaky. “That’s not how life works.”
“Maybe it should.”
We stared at each other for a long moment.
Then I said the thing I had been scared to say since Chapter 4.
“I’m falling for you.”
His breath hitched. Just slightly. But I saw it.
“Then don’t stop,” he said.
“I have to,” I replied. “Because if I don’t, this is going to hurt. For real.”
Silence again.
But this time, it wasn’t soft.
It was heavy.
Painful.
Honest.
He reached for my hand. Not dramatic. Just gentle. Like he didn’t want to scare me.
“Tell me what you want,” he said. “Not what’s logical. Not what’s safe. What you actually want.”
I closed my eyes.
Then opened them.
“I want this to be real,” I whispered. “Or I want it to stop.”
He didn’t answer immediately.
Because for the first time since the contract started, we weren’t playing roles anymore.
We were standing at the edge of something that could either become everything…
Or end everything.
- Writer
