Page 86 of Try Line Hearts
“You okay?”
The question hooked something sharp in his chest.
“Yeah,” Eli said. “You?”
“Same.” A pause. “I didn’t mean to—earlier.”
“I know,” Eli said. Too fast.
Silence stretched.
“You shouldn’t have to,” Lucas said quietly.
Eli smiled, tired. “We said we’d be careful.”
“I know.”
“We are.”
The words matched. The meanings didn’t.
That evening, at the harbor event, it got worse.
The lights. The donors. The proximity. Lucas in a blazer, immaculate. A woman—confident, beautiful—standing close, hand light on his arm.
Eli felt the jealousy hit this time. Hot and immediate and ugly.
Not because he thought Lucas wanted her.
Because everyone else did.
Because the world got to imagine Lucas belonging somewhere Eli couldn’t reach.
He left early, leaned against the railing by the water, breathing through it.
When Lucas texted—You left—Eli stared at the words longer than he meant to.
Come back?
Eli typed:Not tonight.
Lucas replied immediately:Okay.
That hurt more than an argument would have.
Eli stayed by the water until the cold bit deep, until the ache in his body outweighed the ache in his chest.
He wasn’t angry.
Not yet.
But something was changing.
Careful had been a starting point.
Now it felt like a ceiling.
And for the first time since this began, Eli wondered—not what he was willing to hide—but what it would cost him if he kept doing it.
