Her words from yesterday have been ringing in my ears ever since. Halfway. Is that what she thinks I’m doing with her? I wanted to scream at her. She’s the one only halfway in. She’s got one foot here with me and one foot in some other future. So, I let her go. Or, at least I’m trying to.

My alarm blares on my nightstand again and I send it sailing across the room. I take one last breath of Jessie’s sweet smell on my pillow before I strip the bed, tossing the sheets into the hamper with a twinge of regret.

I make it to the shop and dive into work. I haven’t had the patience to work behind the counter this week, so I’m out in the bays, ripping an engine apart while Rob deals with our customers. I glare at him through the glass. I don’t know what him and Becs were trying to do yesterday, having Jessie show up here just to torture me, but I’m pissed about it. This is my shop. My space. I don’t need her here. I’ve got enough memories to make me miserable for a lifetime. My mind flashes back to giving Jessie her necklace. Of taking her on the hood of a car in this bay. I toss aside my wrench and stalk into the shop.

“What the hell was that yesterday?” I bark at Rob.

Rob’s mustache twitches, an easy tell that he’s annoyed. Still, he keeps his voice calm. “Your sister wanted to see her friend. Do you have a problem with that?”

“When that friend is my ex and she’s in my shop, yes. I do.” I cross my arms and scowl at him.

“What are you playing at, son?” Rob asks on a long sigh. I don’t answer. “You’re in love with that girl. That much is plain as day.”

I don’t deny it. “And?”

“And, if you don’t mind me sayin’ so, you’re going about it back ass-wards.” His tone is the same I use to tell a hipster his ancient Saab is beyond saving. It leaves no room for doubt or argument.

“I mind.”

Rob watches me with detached curiosity.

I run my fingers through my hair and take a few breaths. “She’s planning on leaving and she has the balls to tell me I’m only in this halfway.”

Rob rubs his mustache like it’s the source of all his worldly wisdom. “She tell you she’s leaving?”

I nod. “Eventually.”

“She ask you to go with her?”

I shake my head.

“Would you if she did?”

“What the fuck does that matter?” We both know the answer. I would. If she asked me to, I’d go to the moon and back for that woman.

Rob hums. “You scared of losing her?”

“Already lost her,” I snap.