She paused. Better. Okay, Andre said. She turned, looked at him. I haven't told anyone.
Not my mother, not Dedree, not anyone. Why not? Because she let out a breath. Because the last time I was offered something big, not this big, but significant Ryan found out before I was ready to tell him. And he spent three weeks building a counterargument, not a conversation, a counterargument.
He had research. He had timelines. He had a whole presentation about why it made more sense for my career trajectory to stay in Atlanta and grow my existing client base. Her jaw tightened. He meant well.
He genuinely meant well. That's what made it. She stopped. Suffocating, Andre said. The word landed between them.
She looked at him. Yes. Because a man who loves you while still building a cage around you, Andre said, "Is still building a cage? " She was very still. "Is that why you brought me tonight? " he asked. "Not accusatory, just honest.
Not just the family, not just Ryan being there, but because you wanted to see what it felt like to have someone next to you who didn't immediately start calculating what your ambition was going to cost him. The seconds that followed were the kind that matter. Partly, she said finally. But that's not all of it. He waited.
I asked you because. She stopped, pressed her lips together, looked at the city instead of at him. I asked you because for the last 8 months, I've been standing in my kitchen on Sunday mornings, listening to your music through the wall and watching you teach Maya how to drive that truck in the Kroger parking lot on Saturdays. And I borrowed things I didn't need to borrow because it gave me a reason to knock on your door. She finally looked at him and I have been telling myself that it was nothing, that it was convenient, that you were just the man next door who was good in an emergency.
A pause and then I got this job offer and the first person I wanted to tell wasn't my mother, wasn't Dri, wasn't my best friend, it was you. And I couldn't figure out why. And then I realized she stopped. What? He said, "I realized that I was terrified. " She said, "Not of the job of telling you.
Because if I told you and you reacted the way Ryan would have reacted if you calculated. If you tried to talk me out of it, if you made it about what it meant for me and you instead of what it meant for me. She exhaled. Then I would have to stop lying to myself about what I'd been hoping you were. The city moved around them.