Page 61 of When Forever Falls Apart

“Why did you ask me to dance?” I counter, grappling for momentum. “Again, you have Lara.”

“Well, for starters, you left me at the altar, and now you show up with some new guy.” There’s a hint of hurt in his voice that cuts through the night.

“Elliot is not just some new guy. He’s Eva’s elder brother. I’ve known him a long time,” I clarify, a sense of protectiveness rising in me. “And, also, we’re working together.”

“So then, what you’re telling me is that you’ve known him for how long? And this has been going on for…” Myles trails off, disbelief etched on his face.

“It’s not like that, Myles. Yes, I’ve known him since childhood, but I swear I haven’t seen him since. Not until I came back to Cinnamon Springs and we started working together at the café,” I rush out. “There wasn’t anyone else, okay? All these lies out there, they’re told by people who don’t know a damn thing about us. The only person telling the truth is the person standing right in front of you.”

“Then why did you stop the wedding?” His question lingers, heavy and accusatory.

“I was scared. The wedding grew into something beyond us,” I admit, feeling the weight of regret clawing at my chest. “We were planning this small wedding, and by the end, I lost sight of the day. It’s like a whole future was planned for us, but neither one of us had a say in it. And it made me question if we were even getting married forus.”

Myles keeps his expression blank, but then I see his shoulders relax. “I really did want to marry you, you know. But I guess we did lose sight of the whole point. My mother can be a pain in the ass,” he says with a hint of a smile, and I can’t help but chuckle in agreement.

“I’m sorry, Myles. I should have told you how I felt,” I confess, trying to relay my regret.

“And what about now, with Elliot?” His question hangs between us, straight to the point, since the topic of Elliot is heavy on his mind.

I instinctively step back, creating distance between us. “You have Lara, and what I do with Elliot isn’t any of your concern,” I warn him, but keep my voice low.

Myles reaches out to grab my hand again. “Maddy, stop!”

I shake my head, but when I scan the space and see Elliot at the bar with his back toward me, I know it’s time to walk away.

“Don’t, Myles. Don’t make what happened between us even worse.”

“Make it worse? You left me at the altar. I think that will suffice,” Myles is quick to remind me.

The callous reminder of my actions strikes a raw nerve. Once again, I glance over at Elliot, then over to Lara.

“Have a nice night, Myles. Don’t forget, Lara is waiting over there for you.”

Before we left the wedding, Myles pulled me aside again and asked if we could meet up to talk. With Elliot’s gaze fixed on us, I told him we’d talk later. It wasn’t a no, but it wasn’t a yes either. It was me, caught in the middle, torn between the man I almost married and the man who’s standing beside me now, unsure of what I owe to my past or what I’m allowed to feel for my future.

As we approach Cinnamon Springs, the first twinkling lights appear through the trees, flickering against the deepening evening sky. Elliot stayed silent the whole drive back, with his hands steady on the wheel, but his mind clearly miles away. Mine wasn’t much better. The memory of our last kiss kept replaying, unbidden and far too vivid. We were supposed to be keeping up a fake arrangement, nothing more, yet that kiss felt anything but fake. It felt real enough to unsettle everything I thought I knew.

And I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

“Should we talk about tonight?” I finally ask, the moment he turns onto my street.

“We’ve been in this car for nearly an hour, and you choose to bring this up now?” he asks with evident annoyance.

“I needed time to process,” I admit, carefully selecting my words.

He stops in the parking spot in front of the apartment block, but keeps the engine idling.

“What exactly were you processing, Madelina? The fact that your ex-fiancé is still in love with you and wants to get back together?”

His words strike me like a sudden blast of cold wind, scattering my thoughts for a moment.

“Myles never said he wanted to get back together with me,” I tell him, an edge of frustration lingering in my voice.

“He didn’t have to say it, Madelina.”

I quickly shift the topic. “That’s not what I wanted to discuss. I wanted to talk about, well, our kiss.”

Elliot’s fingers clutch the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white as he sinks into thought. Then, in a sudden motion, he unbuckles his seat belt. “I need to head back. It’s getting late,” he states, his words cold, like a brutal wind before an impending storm.