As recently as last week, I would have thought that question was pathetic. But now I think I’m owed this answer. Ross has made it clear that I am enough, and all this time I let Dominic make me think I wasn’t.

“You were more than e-enough,” Dominic says with a hiccup. “That barbecue? That stupid fucking barbecue at Miguel’s place? I didn’t go there thinking anything would happen. I’d become pretty close with the people on the team, watching you swim and all, so didn’t think it’d be weird to go there alone while you were at work. But, uh . . .” Dominic scratches his neck, his nervous tic. “Miguel and I got on a White Claw pong team and lost so badly, and then he let slip that he’d had a crush on me since freshman year and I just wasn’t thinking at all and then—” His neck scratching goes on overdrive, scratching so hard he’s bound to leave marks. “We kissed. But more than just once. We kissed a lot, and before I knew it we’d gone further than I ever expected and I instantly felt guilty. I never thought of myself as the cheating type, things just happened, and then it was too late to take anything back. And Miguel is the most popular guy in school and I didn’t want him to think any less of me, so I told him that we had just broken up, and then I thought if I ended it with you the next day it wouldn’t really count as cheating. But I didn’t think things through. I just got so caught up in the lie and not wanting people to think I was a cheater. That’s why I avoided you those first couple weeks, because I couldn’t tell you that Miguel and I did more than just kiss when we were still together. But then I kept seeing you and Ross everywhere: the movies, swim meets, work. It all hit me that everything had happened so fast and I made a huge mistake. I never should have left you. I never should have done anything with Miguel. I’m such an idiot, Sean. I want you back.”

His word vomit ends and we stand there in awkward silence. D looks at me with a little bit of hope mixed with the tears welling in his eyes. He expects me to make it okay.

But I can’t give him that.