“Let Giles make your tent and you can help me with the sleeping pads.” Mattie waved me over, and I left her husband to finish assembling my tent.

I hated the idea of sleeping on the ground like this. Honestly, I was kind of kicking myself for insisting I’d sleep on my own. All I really wanted was to be next to Oliver. Especially with the threat of a bear or some wild animal ripping me to shreds out here.

“What’s up with that?” Mattie whispered once I was by their tent.

“It really wasn’t working⁠—”

“Not that,” she hissed. “The fact that you’re setting up your own tent. Why aren’t you sharing with Oliver? Are you two fighting? You’ve been sleeping at our house a lot this week⁠—”

“We aren’t fighting,” I interrupted.

Guilt trickled in. I was pushing him away and it was obvious to everyone around me. Including him. I had seen it in the look he gave me when I left his apartment this morning. Not wanting him to tell his friends about me was the lamest excuse in the book. The worst part of it was that none of it was making me feel any better. Every night I spent away from him left me feeling achingly empty, and this weekend was about to be no different.

“Then what’s going on?” Mattie pressed.

“I’m probably going to get that job,” I blurted out. Normally, I wouldn’t say that out loud, but I could feel it with every fiber of my being. When you knew something was going well, you knew, and I just had that feeling. The hiring manager had even let it slip this week that I was their favorite candidate. It was almost like it was mine to lose.

“Okay,” she said flatly, waiting for me to continue.

“If I spend more time with him, I’ll get more attached and where is the benefit in that? It’s just going to make the inevitable harder.”

Mattie scowled before rolling her eyes, making her thoughts on my handling of this situation very clear. “Then why don’t you cut him off now? Stop talking to him if you’re so worried about that.”

“No,” I said, gulping audibly. I hated the sound of that. It wasn’t even bearable.

Mattie shook her head. “Then what’s the alternative? This weird limbo where you push him away but still stay just within reach? That sounds cruel, especially if you haven’t told him that’s what’s going on, which, judging by your guilt-ridden face, you haven’t.”

My eyes cast down to the deflated orange sleeping pad. “I know,” I whispered.

Mattie stood up and brushed away a few small pebbles that were stuck to the knees of her leggings. “Stop being a jerk. Either let him go now, or enjoy him while he’s here. Don’t have one foot out the door already.” She snapped her fingers, and I glanced up. “Or, even better idea, you could stop lying to yourself and realize that you’re falling for this guy. Hard.”