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“All right. Get out. I need to work.” I shooed her off my desk.

“Hey! I gotta have something to look forward to. But, if I’m honest, I don’t know if I could handle it being much better than it is right now.”

“Bye!” I waved at her, and she rolled her eyes.

“I’m leaving, but I want us to get together soon. I miss you!” She blew me a kiss.

“I miss you, too. How about the four of us get dinner this week?”

“Even better. Text me later. Love ya!”

“Love you, too,” I called out as she walked out the door.

I probably shouldn’t have been alone tonight. And Shanny was right. I should lean on Blake, but I didn’t want the night that we said I love you to be tainted by my sadness. I would text her to tell her what I was thinking.

Me: Hey, babe. I hope you’re having a good night. I think we need to talk. Can I see you tomorrow?

The three dots started dancing around, so I would wait for her response.

Blake: Definitely. Is everything okay?

Me: Yeah. I have some stuff on my mind. I love you.

Blake: Okay. I love you, too.

I didn’t want to keep things from Blake and maybe she could even make me feel better about missing out on that grant. But I’d never shared my goals before, and sometimes, I wondered if I was out of my depth.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Blake - Sunday/Monday

As predicted. I had another lousy night’s sleep. After Leia’s text yesterday, I was worried that she was more upset than she was letting on. She said we needed to talk, which I was pretty sure was universal for breaking up, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. Since my mind could be my worst enemy, I called for reinforcements—Ty.

“Thank you for coming here.” I blurted as I opened the door to see Ty and David standing there with coffee and sad smiles. “I’m sorry to call you over here so urgently, but I’m losing my mind.”

They followed me inside, and I shut the door behind us.

“Slow down. What’s going on? You didn’t give me enough information to formulate a strategy. All you said was Leia wanted to break up, and you needed to fix it. What happened?” Ty tried to calm me down, but it was David’s embrace that finally slowed my racing heart.

I pulled out my phone to show him her text. “Look.”

“Well, what did she say when you called her?” Ty questioned, and I was confused.

“What? I didn’t call her?”

He sighed heavily. “You’re concerned she wants to break up, and you don’t call her?”

“No! She said she wanted to talk today. I didn’t want to put her on the spot. But now I’m freaking out. I can’t let her dump me. I love her. Like so much my body aches when she’s away from me.”

“Okay, okay. Is there anything that would cause her to want to break up? What she wants to talk about might not have anything to do with the relationship. David, the voice of reason, stepped in, but Ty quickly cut him off.

“It’s probably the marriage thing. She did seem a little off after that comment.”

I didn’t want him to say that because that was already my fear. But he was probably right. “Well, I can’t take it back now. What should I do?”

“Talk to her about it and explain your reasons. I’m sure she’ll?—”

Again, Ty couldn’t let him finish. “What you need is a grand gesture!” He jumped in, and I looked at David, who shrugged.