Chapter 11
584 Words
Lena’s POV
By the time I got to the taco place, I’d changed my mind about going approximately eight times. Maybe nine. But Nolan was already there, leaning against a booth with a basket of chips and that crooked grin that made you want to spill your secrets for no reason at all.
“Hey,” he said, sliding me a soda. “Don’t worry. I only judge people based on their taco order.”
I smiled. “Good. I only judge people based on their tipping etiquette.”
We sat, and for a while it was easy. Stupidly easy. We talked about internships and professors and our shared hatred of lukewarm coffee. Nolan was charming, but not in that trying-too-hard way. Just… genuine. Safe.
Safe was good, right?
Except every time he smiled at me, part of my brain kept replaying Ethan’s voice in the living room: I just don’t want you to get hurt.
What did that even mean?
“So,” Nolan said, dipping a chip. “You and your co-parent are you two…?”
I nearly choked on a bite of carnitas. “No. Definitely not.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That was a very quick ‘no.’”
“Because it’s a very definite ‘no.’ We just have a complicated past. And a baby. Temporarily.”
He leaned back. “Got it. You don’t want complicated.”
“I have complicated,” I said. “I want… normal. Boring. Predictable.”
He smiled at that. “Then you’re gonna love these tacos.”
I laughed, but part of me felt hollow. Because Ethan was anything but predictable, and I hated how much that had started to feel like home.
I looked down at my phone.
Ethan:
Mateo took a monster burp. You would’ve been proud.
I bit my lip. Why did he always know how to tug at something soft in me just when I was trying to be strong?
Me:
Proud of both of you. Save me a photo.
Nolan was watching me when I looked up. Not unkindly. Just… knowingly.
“Want to get out of here?” he asked. “I know a bookstore with terrible lighting and decent hot chocolate.”
I hesitated. Not because I didn’t want to. But because part of me was already halfway home.
“Raincheck?” I said gently.
He didn’t press. “Raincheck.”
He walked me to my car and opened the door, ever the gentleman. And as I drove off, I didn’t look back.
Because if I did, I might see what I was giving up for something that wasn’t even mine to begin with.
When I walked through the door twenty minutes later, Ethan was still on the couch.
Mateo was asleep again.
“You’re back early,” he said, voice low.
I tossed my keys in the bowl. “Taco craving satisfied. Bookstore craving… postponed.”
He looked at me then. Like really looked. And I hated that my heart did that flutter thing it had no business doing.
“You okay?” he asked.
I nodded. Then without really thinking I sat down beside him, close enough that our knees touched.
And for a second, we just… were.
A girl, a boy, and a baby neither of them expected but couldn’t imagine letting go of.
LOL Cue dramatic voice-over:
If this were just about tacos and baby bottles, things would be simple. But Lena and Ethan? They were never meant for simple.
- Writer
