TIDESONG

Episode 6: The morning after

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The news reached Emily on Tuesday.

Not through Malachi—he wasn't in class, his seat near the window conspicuously empty—but through the particular ecosystem of campus gossip that seemed to carry information faster than light.

Did you hear? Malachi Miller broke up with Sabrina Kirkland.

Her father is furious.

His father is furious.

Apparently it happened Friday night. She moved out of his building Saturday morning.

My cousin works at Kirkland Holdings and she said Edward Kirkland has been screaming at everyone for two days straight.

Emily sat at her desk and stared at her syllabus.

He wasn't in class. He wasn't on campus. His seat remained empty through the entire seventy-five-minute seminar, and when the room emptied and she was alone again, she found herself standing at the window, her reflection faint and translucent against the darkening sky.

He did it, she thought. He actually did it.

But she didn't know what it meant. Whether it was for her or for himself or for some reason she couldn't yet understand. Whether she was the destination or merely the catalyst.

She didn't know anything.

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He returned on Thursday.

His face was unchanged—still quiet, still watchful, still carrying whatever he carried with the same patient stillness. But something had shifted in the way he moved. Lighter, somehow. Less like he was bracing for impact.

After class, he approached her desk.

"Dr. Addison."

"Mr. Miller."

A pause. His eyes held hers, steady and unhurried.

"I wanted you to know that I didn't do it for you." Another pause. "I did it for me. Because I was seventeen when I made that promise and I didn't understand what I was agreeing to. Because two years is too long to pretend something that isn't true." He paused. "Because I want to know what it feels like to choose something for myself."

Emily said nothing.

"But also because of you." His voice was very quiet. "Not for you. Because of you. Because you looked at me like I was a person instead of an asset, and I realized I'd forgotten what that felt like."

The space between them held very still.

"I'm not asking for anything," he said. "I'm not expecting anything. I know the rules haven't changed. I know you're still my professor and I'm still your student and nothing about that has shifted." A pause. "I just wanted you to know."

He left.

Emily stood alone in the empty classroom, her hands very still at her sides.

She didn't sleep that night.

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