Fangs Fate & Other Bad Desicions novel Chapter 49

Chapter 49

I don’t answer him. Because if I do, I might say something like “I can’t breathe without her” or “I’m already too far gone!

Instead, I close my eyes and let the city blur past my window, one mile at a time, getting closer to the only woman who’s ever without even so much as trying.

unraveled me

Mike pulls up quietly and smoothly to the curb, parking in front of the unassuming little building like he’s done it a hundred times before. Sunlight catches in the bookstore window, filtering through dust motes and hanging signs that say things like ‘NEW ROMANCE ARRIVALS‘ and

FREE COFFEE FRIDAYS‘

en all on its own.

I stare at the quaint glass–fronted door like it might open

Like she might step out, see me and say… What exactly? I’m not sure. But it’ll most likely be scathing, sarcastic, and uncomfortably honest. And I’d take it–gladly–just to hear her voice.

She’s somewhere in there. Laughing, maybe. Or arguing with a supplier on the phone about a delayed delivery. Or biting her lip while shelving a stack of hardcovers. All while she’s blissfully unaware that I’m parked twenty feet away, with her name like a brand on the inside of my ribcage.

“Boss? Mike asks quietly but not tentatively, “Are we staying or circling?”

I don’t answer him at first. I just sit there, with my elbows on my knees, and my eyes pinned to the shopfront like it’s the only thing tethering me to this earth. I take in every detail–the chalkboard sign with an uneven quote, the crooked hanging fairy lights inside, and even the way a streak of sunlight breaks across the doorframe as some sort of beacon that calls to me.

“It feels wrong to leave, I murmur. “But worse to go in.”

Mike hums thoughtfully, both of his hands still on the wheel. “You ever see those old movies where the guy charges into the airport just before the love of his life boards a plane?”

gaze still locked on the storefront, “The ones that usually end with bad dialogue and a kiss that wouldn’t pass a CPR course.”

– grunt, my gaze

He chuckles softly, before adding, “Yeah. But you know what always bugs me? It’s never the right time. Never the right words. But they go anyway.”

I look at him, unsure where he’s going with this, “And?”

Mike shrugs and replies, “I just always wonder if maybe…that’s the whole point

I glance back at the door that I know is unlocked and ready to be opened.

Just a few steps. That’s all it would take. I could walk inside, cross the threshold, and let whatever’s happening between us breathe in the open air instead of suffocating in silence.

But I don’t. Not today.

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