He Told Me to Stay Away, So I Left and He Followed novel · Chapter 27 of 32
Chapter 27: Three Sentences
The gallery had a vocal booth the size of a closet, lined in gray foam, with a stool and one microphone.
I had booked it for Thursday, the day before the opening.
Miles stood in the doorway with his hands in his pockets and looked at the stool.
"I've never done this," he said.
"You don't have to do anything. You just talk."
"To whom?"
"To me." I sat down on the floor outside the booth, where he could see me through the glass. "I'll be right here."
"With your headphones on."
"With my headphones on, so I can hear every breath."
He sat on the stool. He adjusted the microphone an inch to the left, then back.
"Is it on?" he asked.
"It's been on since you sat down."
He looked at me through the glass, and I looked at him.
I pressed record.
"I wasn't going to say anything at that photo," he said. "I want you to know that first. I wasn't saying anything, because I was waiting for you to look at me."
His voice came into my headphones low and close, with the faint wet click of his mouth before each word.
"I had a speech. It was three sentences. I practiced it in the shower for a month, and I got it down to under ten seconds."
"Say it," I said, though I knew he couldn't hear me.
He took a breath.
"I've loved you since you were nine," he said. "I used to be afraid that saying so would make you pick Chicago, and that you'd wake up at thirty and blame me for it. So I kept it quiet and called it respect."
His eyes didn't leave mine.
"It wasn't respect, it was cowardice. I should have asked you. I should have said, here is the whole thing, now you choose, and I'd have stood there either way."
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