The rest of the day didn’t settle.
It lingered.
That conversation in the elevator—if it could even be called that—stayed with me longer than it should have.
You should decide what you actually want.
The problem was, I thought I already had.
I sat at my desk, reviewing the same document for the third time, barely registering what was in front of me.
Because my mind wasn’t here.
It kept circling back.
To him.
To the way he said it.
To how easily he stepped back—like whatever had been building between us didn’t matter as much as I thought.
And that… that was what bothered me the most.
Not the distance.
But how natural it seemed for him.
Like letting go cost him nothing.
“Ava.”
I looked up.
Lila was watching me again.
“You’re doing it.”
“Doing what?”
“That thing where you p
