Page 108 of Tell Me Your Desires

“I’llneverstop being grateful for you or what we had, but I need to stop rewriting it in my head as something that it wasn’t. We weren’t perfect. We were just us. And that was enough. But now, I have to let you go.”

Jaime’s throat burned, and for once, she didn’t fight it. A tear slid down her cheek, her hands shaking against her knees, but then Anya stepped forward and laid a supportive hand on Jaime’s shoulder and squeezed. Jaime settled her own hand over it and closed her eyes. Anya’s gentle touch felt like permission. Permission to finally release everything she’d been holding in. Jaime bowed her head and exhaled. When she opened her eyes again, the stone was the same, the ground beneath her feet remained unchanged, but something inside her had shifted. Taylor hadn’t been erased, and Jaime wasn’t fully healed, but she felt lighter.

She reached out and traced the edge of the stone with her fingertips, then rose to her feet and stepped back. “Goodbye, Taylor.”

When she turned to Anya, her face soft with a mixture of patience and love, Jaime hesitated. Because moving towards Anya meant moving forward, and moving forward meant leaving this behind. But then Jaime felt the weight on her shoulders ease again, urging her to take the step. She reached for Anya’s hand. “Let’s go.”

Anya laced their fingers together. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. For the first time in a long time, I am.”

“I told Rosanna I’d text when we were on our way over for dinner. So, if you want to spend more time here, that’s okay.”

“I’m ready.” Jaime leaned in and kissed Anya, lingering as she closed her eyes. “So ready.”

They walked back down the gravel path side by side, and Jaime didn’t look back. The past was still a part of her, but it no longer held her in place.

As they reached the iron gates that opened onto Reno’s streets, Anya gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Jaime glanced at her, meeting her eyes, and found herself smiling.

The future was waiting, and Jaime was ready to walk into it.