15-05-2021-052358It-Ends-with-Us

Why is he buying me gifts? He has a girlfriend. I have a boyfriend.
Our past has already caused enough problems in my present. I
certainly don’t need gifts to exacerbate that.
“Why are you buying me gifts, Atlas?”
He leans back in his seat and crosses his arms over his chest. “I
bought it three years ago. I’ve been holding on to it in case I ever ran
into you.”
Considerate Atlas. He hasn’t changed. Dammit.
I pick up the gift and set it on the floor behind my desk. I try to
release some of the tension I’m feeling, but it’s really hard when
everything about him makes me so tense.
“I came here to apologize to you,” he says.
I wave off his apology, letting him know it isn’t necessary. “It’s fine.
It was a misunderstanding. Ryle is fine.”
He laughs under his breath. “That’s not what I’m apologizing for,”
he says. “I’d never apologize for defending you.”
“You weren’t defending me,” I say. “There was nothing to defend.”
He tilts his head, giving me the same look that he gave me last
night. The one that lets me know how disappointed in me he is. It
stings deep in my gut.
I clear my throat. “Why are you apologizing, then?”
He’s quiet for a moment. Contemplative. “I wanted to apologize
for saying that you sounded like your mother. That was hurtful. And
I’m sorry.”
I don’t know why I always feel like crying when I’m around him.
When I think about him. When I read about him. It’s like my
emotions are still tethered to him somehow and I can’t figure out how
to cut the strings.
His eyes drop to my desk. He reaches forward and grabs three
things. A pen. A sticky note. My phone.
He writes something down on the sticky note and then proceeds to
pull my phone apart. He slips the case off and puts the sticky note
between the case and the phone, then slides the cover back over it.
He pushes my phone back across the desk. I look down at it and then
up at him. He stands up and tosses the pen on my desk.
“It’s my cell phone number. Keep it hidden there in case you ever
need it.”