He idly fidgets with the gold ring he wears on his right middle finger. It was a gift from his late father, who passed away when Ryan was in high school. I hadn’t noticed it the other day, but he never took that ring off when we were together. He left it on while cooking, jogging, in the shower, while he slept. While we slept. While he made love to me, the edge of it scraping against the skin of my hip as he pressed his long fingers into it…

“Can I come in?” From the timbre of his voice, it sounds like his thoughts went somewhere similar.

“Um…” I look down at my purple satin pajamas, the one luxury I cannot live without. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“It’s a better idea than me standing in the hallway.”

He has a point. I open the door wider, and he walks inside. “Let me go put on something more appropriate.”

“I’ve seen you in less.” He smirks again as the door snicks shut behind him.

I gape at him. “Ryan,” I whisper.

He shakes his head quickly. “I’m sorry. I was trying to be funny.”

Blinking, I huff lightly. “It was. But maybe…too soon?”

“Fair.”

We stand awkwardly just inside my door, unable to move or talk or look anywhere but at each other. All the while, I’m acutely aware of my rumpled pajamas, my unshaven legs, my messy hair, the face I scrubbed clean after therapy. Not that it matters what I look like to him. Not anymore.

Ryan is the first to break the silence. “It’s good to see you.” From the way he says it, I can tell he means it. It actually eases some of my self-consciousness.

“I’m sorry how all that went down the other day.” I smile a little. “I’d say it wasn’t my idea, but I went along with it. I should have told Trina—”

“No,” he cuts me off. “It was a brilliant move on her part.”

“Because you never would have read it if you knew it was me who wrote it?” I guess.

“Casey likely wouldn’t have,” he admits. His brown eyes pin me to the spot. “But I would. I’ll read anything you write from now until the end of time.”

“Even if I have another mental breakdown?” It’s my turn to try to be funny, but it falls flat.

“Even then,” he says with a marked intensity. “I never meant to be your enemy, Scarlett.”

A lump rises in my throat. I try to swallow it away, but it’s too thick. “I know. I’m sorry. I can’t… I don’t want to talk about this.” I shake my head to clear it, trying desperately to find safer ground. “You said you had notes?”