“I’m sorry, okay, just stop being mad at me.” I was wringing my hands looking straight ahead when I said it, so I didn’t have to watch him sneering at me. From my periphery I could see his hands tighten on the steering wheel and I could almost hear him thinking.

I felt the tension between us like an invisible wall of heat. I hated knowing he was mad at me. Absolutely hated it. When I was a kid my mother teased me for being shameless when she was pissed at me. I’d act like nothing was wrong until she gave up and started talking to me again. Not with Theo. Maybe that was why I’d been avoiding him, because I knew that seeing him upset would be too hard. What was crazier was that this pissed off, distant Theo was the one I’d dealt with for years, but just after a few weeks the other one was the one I missed. The one I wanted.

He took so long to say something I was tempted to fling myself out of the car.

“I’m not mad at you, Alba.”

“You should be mad at me. I’ve been a complete jerk.” I did turn around then and I could see how tightly he was clenching his jaw. He might tell himself he wasn’t mad, but he was feeling feelings. I wasn’t foolish enough to think Theo Ganas was in love with me. But his pride was likely hurt. I’d handled all this so poorly.

“I’m not a kid, Alba.” He shrugged, as if it didn’t matter much. “I can accept if what I wanted to happen didn’t.”

“I don’t even know if I’m going back to New York,” I blurted out, the words bubbling out of me.

He whipped his head, probably as surprised as I was. Staying in Dallas permanently had never been even a remote possibility, but now that the words were out there, I couldn’t sweep them aside.

“You really thinking of relocating?” he finally asked, and I noticed he didn’t sound surprised, just curious.

“I don’t know.” And I really didn’t. This time in Dallas was supposed to be an easy rung in the ladder. A solid step up to the next thing, but I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted. Other than Theo, that was.

“It’s not like I don’t want...that I don’t want you,” I confessed for some insane fucking reason. “I have too much going on right now, Theo. So do you. It’s easier this way.”

He’d taken off his sunglasses and I could see a million questions flashing in his eyes. “If that’s what you want.”