But doing that meant giving in. Surrendering. Accepting my fate, relinquishing, submitting, dying.
Will I forget what the city looks like one day?
The knowledge is like a sharp, angry weight in my chest. One that reminds me all too well why I’d told Summer what I had outside of her door the other night.
I can never tell her.
And yet, dating her without her knowing would be unforgivable, too.
Friendship, then. It’s been a very long time since I tried to tread that line.
The receptionist looks startled when I arrive, hands fumbling with the lip gloss she’d been applying. “Mr. Winter?”
“Just here to drop off some documents for Ms. Davis.”
She looks from Summer’s half-closed door to Vivienne’s open one.
“Vivienne Davis,” I clarify.
Suzy nods. “She’s out for lunch, but I’ll be happy to put them on her desk and let her know you came by.”
I hand her the envelope and keep from glancing at Summer’s door. She’d been right to be concerned about our interactions making their way back to this office. As much as I hate it, I know how it would look, too.
But then her door creaks as it’s nudged open, nails clicking against hardwood floor. Ace winds his way around my legs, a cold nose pressed against my hand.
I rub my hand over his silky ears and his tail wags softly, dark eyes looking up at me. Reminding me that I might one day need someone like him.
“Hello.” Summer is standing in the open doorway to her office, her golden hair braided into a rope down the side of her neck. “My aunt is out at the moment.”
“So I gathered, yes.” I nod to her office. “Have you had a chance to look over the suggestions the app development team sent over?”
“Yes. I actually have a few thoughts on it, if you have a moment, Mr. Winter.”
“I do, in fact.”
“Excellent.” She beckons and I join her in her office, the door shutting behind us.
Summer gives me a slow smile. “Hello.”
“Hi,” I say. Glance from her to the sad, half-eaten salad on her desk and the summer weather outside her window. “Come out and have lunch with me."
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
Her smile widens until it becomes a physical thing aching in my chest. “All right. You leave first and then I’ll join you downstairs?”
I bend and give Ace a pat to hide my smile. “Yes.”
Fifteen minutes later we’re walking into the park next to her office building. Summer steers us right to the lone bench unoccupied by office workers and sinks down on it with a thankful sigh. Like a sunflower, she turns her face up to the sky.
“This was exactly what I needed,” she says.
My hands tighten on the sandwich I’d bought on the way, the flimsy excuse to spend more time with her. I look away from her beauty before I’m tempted to forget it’s not for me.
“You often eat lunch at your desk?”
“Sometimes,” she admits. “We hadn’t been doing so well before you guys bought us. I mean, you know that.”