“Alba, please don’t walk away.” He kept his fists in his pockets. “What good am I to you if I can’t even sort this out?”

“Is that what you think this is about? You giving me a leg up in getting my business off the ground, Theo?” I asked as the blade of his words cut deeper still. “You think that unless you’re of use to me I won’t love you. Is that it?”

His jaw clenched so tight that I almost winced. I saw the effort he was making to mitigate the effect my words had on him.

“I see things through,” he insisted. “I promised you a show and it is what I was trying to give you. Am I supposed to believe that me loving you will be enough? That if I ruin this chance for you that you won’t resent me later?”

I stepped up to him and saw the tremors in his arms.

“That’s exactly what you were supposed to think. I don’t need you to make my career, Theo. I don’t even need you to make me coffee. I love you—” I had to take a breath then because the tears were coming now and I had to finish saying this. “I love you because of who you are and how safe and happy you make me. I love you because you’re the first person to ever make me feel like I can be strong and vulnerable at the same time. And I will stop loving you not because of what you could not do for me, but because I can’t trust you.”

His breath hitched then and I wondered if he was going to cry too, but his face just hardened. Every emotion shuttered. His walls coming up right before my eyes, New York Theo. “I’ll stop loving you because you don’t see me as an equal. You don’t let the people you love look like fools. You don’t let them walk into a situation that could hurt them unprepared.”

“I don’t know what to do.” He sounded desperate, but I could not give him the answer.

A laugh came out of me, bitter and broken at his question. “You just don’t get it, Theo.” I turned away from him, swiping my hand under my eyes and grabbing my purse and my carry-on.

“Where are you going?” he asked, but didn’t come after me.

“I’m going to Julia and Rocco’s. They’ll have my stuff out of here before our move-out day.”

“You’re just going to leave, then?”

I opened the door and left without answering.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Theo