My Not-Yet Mate and the Thirty-Day Trial novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Letter

I woke at ten to six, and his side of the bed was cold.

The sheet still held the dent of his body.

I knew before I stood up.

The kitchen light was on.

Joss sat at the table in his jeans with no shirt, and the seventeen purple bites across his chest stood out under the bulb.

His coffee had gone cold in front of him.

One big hand lay flat on a sheet of printed paper.

The seed catalogs were pushed to the far end of the table.

I stopped in the doorway in my nightshirt.

The clock over the stove said six o'clock exactly.

"Day twenty-six," he said, without looking up.

My stomach dropped through the floor.

For one clear second I was certain he was going to say it.

I saw him standing in the Keeper's kitchen five years ago, and I saw him do it to me.

He looked up.

His eyes were red at the rims, and perfectly steady.

"I came in for water at five," he said. "I saw the corner of it."

"I read it twice. I've been in this chair for an hour."

"Joss."

"I want you to know what I did with that hour. I stayed in the chair."

I could not speak.

"I'm not saying it," he said. "I'm not walking. I told you I wouldn't."

"But I'm angry, Laney."

"I'd like to be angry at you for a minute without you telling me I shouldn't be."

"Okay."

He turned the paper around and pushed it toward me with one finger.

"Colorado State University. A two-year residency. Offer of admission, October first." He stopped. "October first was day nine."

"Yes."

"And you had this in your pocket every night since."

His voice cracked.

"I know."

I came across the kitchen and sat down across from him.

My hands would not stay still, so I folded them on the table.

"I was afraid," I said. "If I told you, you'd stay because of it. Or you'd walk because of it."

"And I wouldn't know which part was you."

"That wasn't yours to decide."

"I know."

"You let me say I'm leaving on the thirtieth or never."

"You listened to me promise things to a woman who was keeping a door open behind her back."

"That's not what it was."

"Then what was it?"

"It was mine." My voice rose. "It was the only thing in this whole month that was only mine."

"I couldn't give it up, and I couldn't say it out loud."

"I'm not asking you to give it up."

"You're asking me to hand it over."

"I'm asking you to trust me with it."

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend