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“I wish you’d say you hate me and that you never want to see me again.”

“I might have to look for another job.” It wasn’t what Romi meant to say,

but when it came out, she knew it was the truth.

Bitterness, disappointment, pain, and rage all churned in her gut, but she

knew that speaking out of anger, from a place of extreme hurt, wouldn’t end

well. She didn’t want this last time with Kiera to be filled with sharp words

that they would both regret later.

“I’ll give you severance. It’s my fault you want to quit. I don’t want you

to, but I know how you feel. I can’t imagine working together now.”

“That’s nice of you, but—”

“No. No buts. If you’re quitting, I’m giving you three month’s pay. How

could I not? I want to take care of you, and this is the only way I can do it.”

Kiera bit down so hard into her bottom lip that when she spoke again, the

indents of her teeth remained. “My feelings haven’t changed. I need you to

know that.”

“I don’t want to think about that,” Romi said brokenly. Her throat was so

raw that it felt like a blowtorch was just jammed into her mouth. “I can’t

think about it. It makes everything worse, not better. It seems so…so

useless. Everything we did. Everything we felt. Feel. It makes me think that

I’m not enough.”

“You can’t think like that. It wasn’t useless.” Kiera’s hand flew to her

chest. “I’ll always treasure this time we spent together. I’ll remember it

forever. I’ve changed the way I think about a lot of things. I just can’t

change this one thing and it’s everything.”

“It doesn’t have to be everything.”

“It’s not fair to ask you to wait. I can’t do that to you. I can’t let

everything change between us like that when I know what we’ve already

shared.”

It might not be fair or right, but it didn’t matter that Romi could wait. To

Kiera, this was the right thing. She was a strong, independent, wonderful