It’s . . . it’s confusing, and before I know what I’m doing, once the elevator doors part, I pull Ryot off to the side, out of sight of the group that is just up ahead in the lobby.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

My nerves turn in my stomach as I stare up at him, knowing that I won’t be able to get through the night if I don’t at least say what’s on my mind. “That was weird.”

“What was weird?” he asks, glancing over his shoulder.

“The pool. That was a weird thing we did.”

“Oh.” He pulls on the back of his neck. “Yeah, that was sort of strange. Sorry if I made it awkward with what I said.”

I shake my head. “You didn’t. You were speaking your truth, and that’s what you’ve always done. But I feel like you’re tiptoeing around me, and it’s making things even weirder.”

“I don’t know how to act around you at the moment,” he admits. “I’d be lying if I said being near you, pretending like everything’s okay isn’t hard, because it is. I still love you, Myla, and it’s going to take me a second to figure this all out and navigate through the process of letting you go.”

I wet my lips and stare at the ground. “I feel the same way.” When I lift my gaze to his, I continue, “These past few weeks, these past few months have been awful. And the other night, when you signed the papers, it was even more confusing, even harder because I saw the finality of it all. The culmination of our rough time coming to an end. It’s been hard trying to let go as well.”

“Thank you for admitting that,” he says softly. The somberness of his voice nearly breaks me.

“This will continue to be weird if we keep . . . I don’t know, thinking about what we lost. You know?”

“Yeah, I don’t think anyone wants to see a grown man cry at a dinner table, but that’s how I feel.”

I bite down on my lip and try to lighten the mood. “It might be entertaining. You do have quite the ugly cry face.”

He smirks and then pushes a loose piece of hair behind my ear. “Not as hideous as yours.”

I laugh and then let out a deep breath. “How about this? Instead of focusing on what we lost, how about we celebrate what we had? Because what we did have was great.”

“Some might call it . . . exceptional.” He takes my hand in his, and we twist our fingers together.

“It was exceptional.” I smile as I feel my heartbeat pick up with every stroke of his thumb over my knuckles. “So how about we just have fun? When people are around, we act like the exceptional married couple we once were, and when they’re not, we just . . . take it easy, stop being awkward. Think you can do that with me?”