He looked down at the floor.
“I wasn’t asking you to leave him.”
“Feelings aren’t the only thing that matters.”
“I know.”
His voice cracked slightly.
“I just wanted to stop pretending I was imagining everything.”
I felt my face grow warm.
I could have denied it.
I could have told him that he had misunderstood my kindness and that nothing had ever happened in my mind.
But I knew that wouldn’t be entirely honest.
“Sometimes,” I admitted quietly, “we can feel something we have no right to pursue.”
He looked up.
“So you do feel something?”
I swallowed.
“I feel confused. I feel guilty. And I feel responsible for making sure we don’t turn this into something that hurts everyone.”
He nodded, but the disappointment on his face was unmistakable.
“Okay.”
“Jake, listen to me. Whatever you’re feeling, you need to give yourself room to grow beyond it. You can’t build your future around someone else’s marriage.”
