Almost Is Not a Safe Place

The returned to the Willow. The place has no changed. The bakery still smelled of cinnoman ever morning. Noah still complained that no one appreciated his playlist. Emily still left fresh flowers outside Rosa door every Sunday. Everything was exactly as they had left it.

Except...it wasn't. The fake dating ended in the airport. But the feeling hadn't. Miles noticed the difference more than anyone.

Sadie no longer stole fries from his plate with the excuse " Sharing is Caring Bennett". She stopped showing up at his cottage room every morning with two coffees claiming she accidentally made an extra. She still smiled at him. Still laughed at his jokes. But there was an invisible wall between them.

It was not rejection. It was restraint. And somehow, that hurt even more.

"You two fought?" Noah asked while wiping down the bar. "No"
"Then why are you acting like divorced parents who agreed to split Custody of the bakery?" Miles sighed. "We are not"
"Exactly"

Miles kept replaying the wedding in his head. The way the hand holding felt natural. The was introduction as her girl friend hadn't felt like acting. They way she rested her head against his shoulder. He realized something that terrified him. He realise that he was not missing pretending. He was missing her.
He missed her.
He dint know what to do with that realisation though. After a few days, Olivia called. Last the formalities, "I have been thinking " she admitted.

"About what?"

"Us. I always thought we enrde because we wanted different things."

"And?"

"I don't think athat true anymore ".
Mile frowned.

"I watched you with Sadie all weekend ". His heart skipped.

"You smiled more in these two days than you did for the whole lot of our relationship "

"Oliviya..." He began.

"I wasn't jealous of her. I was jealous of how peaceful you looked."

He blinked. After the call ended, Miles sat on his porch for a long time.

It was peaceful. That is exactly how Saide made his feel. Not excited or nervous. Just...Home.

The following morning, he found Sadie paiting beside the lake. She smiled as he approached. But it didn't quite reach her eyes. "You have been avoiding me" he started.

She kept brushing blue cross the canvas. "I have been giving you space", she said.

"I was not asking for space " he said gently. She finnaly looked at him.

"You needed closure Miles."

"I got it."

"And I was happy to help" Something about those words stung." As your fake girlfriend...nothing more" she continued quietly.

Miles stared at her.

"Is that how you honestly think?"
She looked away.

" I don't want to become the girl you accidentally fell for just because your relationship ended."

The sentence lindered between them. Miles suddenly understood why she had been distant all week.

She beleived she had just a chapter in his healing and not the person he wanted to stay at the end of the story. Before he could explain, Rida appeared with a basket if warm bread. Without asking she sat inbetween them.

"The biggest mistake people make is deciding what someone else feels instead of letting them tell you".

She handed them each a loaf of bread before standing and walking away.

"I will leave you two alone to stop being spectacularly stubborn "

As she walked away, silence settled over the lake. And for the first time the silence between them was not comforting. It was full of everything that they don't have the courage to tell.