Page 110 of A Solid Guide to Surviving a Situationship

Rick didn’t interrupt.

“I mean it,” I added, glancing at him with teary eyes. “I thought my life was over.”

A small, fragile laugh escaped me.

“Because you weren’t just… you,” I said. “You were everything I built my life around.”

My voice softened.

“And when you were gone… I didn’t know what was left of me.”

I swallowed.

“I didn’t know where to anchor anymore.”

The word hung there.

Honest.

Uncomfortable.

“I went into a really bad place after,” I admitted. “I didn’t even recognize myself for a while.”

Rick’s eyes softened.

“Yeah,” he said. “Me too.”

I looked up at him.

“I always thought that no matter what happened in my life… you’d be there,” he said quietly. “But we didn’t have anything in common anymore.”

He held my gaze this time.

“But there was one thing I was sure about,” he added. “You.”

My chest tightened even more.

“And when you were gone…” he exhaled slowly, shaking his head. “I didn’t know what to do with that. I felt lost—like I didn’t have direction anymore.”

We sat there in the quiet that followed.

Both of us just holding the hurt within our hearts.

We didn’t rush to fill the silence.

We just sat there, letting it exist… letting everything we had said settle into something heavy, but honest.

Rick was the first to move, taking a small sip of his beer, then glanced at me again—this time with something lighter in his eyes.

“I saw your videos, though,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “Of course you did.”

A small smile tugged at his lips. “Hard to miss when you’re The Southside King. You’ve got a lot of people watching and listening to you now.”

I let out a soft breath, looking down at my hands. “Yeah… unfortunately.”

He huffed. “The one where you were ranting about some guy?”