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| 45149 Too Close for Almost |

Leta couldn’t believe she was in Madrid—in Madrid, with Cye, of all people. Worse—or better, depending on how she looked at it—she was standing in his bedroom, barefoot, moving around like she belonged there. Like the whole damn place was hers.
She hadn’t meant for it to turn into this. At first, it was just… fun. Teasing him, annoying him, pushing his buttons until he’d shoot back something that made her laugh so hard she’d nearly choke on her drink. That had been the rhythm of them. Constant bickering, endless dares, the kind of jokes that always tiptoed a little too close to something else.

Then came the bet. She’d thought that was just another one of their stupid games—a sign that they were becoming friends. Maybe even good friends. The kind who made ridiculous pacts about raising kids and buying a cow together if life didn’t work out the way they hoped by forty. A comforting sort of absurdity. Something safe.

But now, standing here, she couldn’t imagine waiting that long. Couldn’t imagine pretending she didn’t care whether Cye ended up with someone else. The thought of him falling for some random girl—some stranger who’d get to see that quiet, unexpectedly tender side of him made her feel sick to her core.

She wanted him to be happy. Of course she did. God, she wanted that for him. But she couldn’t lie to herself anymore as if she wouldnt be devastated if that happiness didn’t include her. So she’d blurted it out. Not at a carefully chosen time—no, she’d said it when everything between them felt both too close and too far, when one more step might have tipped everything into something neither of them could take back.

And maybe that was the cruelest part of it all… realizing that for the first time, she didn’t want to run. She wanted to stay wherever he was.