Chapter 22: Stay

Tamara's POV

"Stay," I said.

It came out small, and I said it again, louder, to the dark glass and the man in front of it.

"Stay. Please stay."

Tobias didn't move.

He stood with his hands at his sides and his shirt open at the collar, and I watched the word go into him.

"I'm asking you," I said. "I don't know how to do it well. I've never done it."

"You're doing it fine."

"Porter put his mouth on my hand, and I felt nothing."

"I felt tired."

My throat hurt.

"I stood there and waited for what I felt for twelve years, and it wasn't there."

"Tamara."

"I'm not choosing between you and him. He isn't on the list."

I held up my father's letter.

"It says to ask loud, and you were right that I never have. But you were wrong about one thing."

"Which?"

"I didn't need a man to give me the room. I took it myself. I'm asking you to be in it."

He closed his eyes for a second.

When he opened them, they were bright.

"That's the best thing anyone has ever said to me," he said, "and I sell advice for a living."

I laughed, and it broke in the middle.

"Say yes, Tobias."

"Yes."

"Say you mean it."

"I mean it," he said, and crossed the carpet.

He didn't kiss me yet.

He took my face in both hands, with his thumbs under my eyes, and looked at me for a long moment.

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