26
The glow of candlelight danced along the surface of the wine glasses. A soft hum of jazz played beneath the ambient clinking of cutlery and whispered conversations all around them.
Katherine stared at the name like it wasn’t real.
Kingsley.
Everything around her dimmed.
That name, just the name, was a trigger. A rush of memories. A jolt to her ribs. A bitter bloom in her stomach. The soft way he once said her name. The nights she waited. The nights he didn’t come home. The things he left unsaid. The lies he didn’t need to speak for her to feel.
“Katherine?” Jordan’s voice sounded far away now. She blinked, trying to clear the fog. He leaned in gently, concern shadowing his expression. “Is everything okay?”
She shook her head quickly and dropped the phone back into her bag, sealing it shut like it was poison. “I… I’m really sorry. I don’t think I can do this right now.”
Jordan straightened a little, surprised, but calm. “You mean the dinner?”
She nodded, pushing her chair back slowly. “I thought I could, but… something just threw me off. I’m not in the right state of mind. Can we postpone this?”
He nodded. He didn’t press her. He didn’t frown. He just studied her for a beat longer, then said, “It’s okay. We don’t have to do this now. And what I said… I meant it. But you don’t need to respond tonight. Just think about it, okay?”
She nodded again, her eyes misting. “Thank you.”
She left the restaurant in a haze. The night air was cool against her skin, but her emotions burned beneath it.
She didn’t go home.
She went straight to Carol’s apartment.
The moment Carol opened the door, she knew something was wrong.
Katherine stood in the hallway, arms folded tightly across her chest like she was holding herself together. Her face was pale, and her eyes were swollen with a storm she hadn’t let out yet.
“Katherine?” Carol’s voice softened immediately. “Oh my God, what happened? Are you okay?”
Katherine stepped in slowly, without answering, and dropped her purse on the couch like it weighed a thousand pounds. Her heels came off next, one by one. Then she just stood there, looking lost, shaking her head.
Carol closed the door behind her gently and followed her in. “Hey, talk to me. What happened? How was the date with Jordan? Didn’t you say you were going to finally hear him out tonight?”
Katherine slowly lowered herself onto the couch. “It was going fine…” Her voice cracked. “It was actually going so well.”
Carol sat beside her, already sensing the shift. “Then what?”
Katherine was quiet for a beat. Then she exhaled hard. “Kingsley called.”
That name. Carol froze. Her mouth opened slightly, then closed again as if bracing for a reaction that hadn’t fully hit yet. “He… what?”
“In the middle of dinner,” Katherine said, shaking her head again. “Jordan had just said something… something real. He said he had feelings for me. He was trying to open his heart, and just then, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing.”
Carol leaned in, frowning. “You didn’t answer, did you?”
“No,” Katherine said quickly. “No, I didn’t. But I checked it… and his name on the screen, just seeing it, everything crashed. My brain stopped. My heart…” She looked down at her trembling hands. “It was like a panic attack, I think. I couldn’t think straight. I told Jordan I wasn’t feeling well. I had to leave.”
Carol’s face twisted with anger. “That selfish, manipulative piece of— What the hell does he want now? After everything he did to you?”
“I don’t know,” Katherine whispered. “And I don’t care. I really don’t. But Carol, when I saw his name… I was just paralyzed. I thought I’d healed. I thought I moved on. But it was like being pulled right back into it.”
“And he just ruins everything,” Carol snapped. “He doesn’t even deserve to know your number, let alone call you. I swear, Katherine, I could scream.”
Katherine buried her face in her palms. “And now I feel terrible. I walked out on Jordan. He was so kind. He didn’t pressure me. He just said I should take my time. But… I know I hurt him. I saw it in his eyes.”
“Stop,” Carol said gently but firmly, placing a hand on Katherine’s arm. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re still healing. And it’s okay to feel overwhelmed. But Kingsley? He doesn’t get to do this to you again. Not now. Not ever.”
There was a long silence.
Then Carol leaned forward, grabbed Katherine’s purse from where it sat on the floor, and pulled out her phone.
“Give it to me,” she said.
Katherine looked at her, confused. “What?”
“Give me the phone. You’re blocking him. Now. Tonight.”
Katherine hesitated.
Carol’s voice softened. “Kate, you have every right to protect your peace. You’ve built a life here, your café, your friendships, your own apartment, your freedom. He doesn’t get to sneak back in just because he decides to call.”
Katherine swallowed. “You’re right. You’re so right.”
With trembling fingers, she unlocked her phone. She opened her contacts. Her thumb hovered over Kingsley’s name.
A dozen memories surged up all at once. Their first kiss. Their wedding night. The tears she cried alone. The lies she had to pretend not to see. The way he said her name like it was both a prayer and a curse.
She blocked the number.
Silence followed.
Carol reached out and gently squeezed her hand. “I’m proud of you.”
Katherine let out a long breath, deep and slow, as if something heavy had just been lifted from her shoulders.
“I feel… free,” she whispered. “Shaken, but free.”
“Good,” Carol said, curling her legs up on the couch. “Now, we’re going to open a bottle of wine, and you’re going to talk to me about Jordan. And if you want to, you’ll text him tomorrow. You’ll explain. And if not, fine. But for tonight, you’re safe.”
Katherine nodded, finally letting the tears fall.
The next morning, the apartment was quiet, the way early mornings always were in Carol’s place. Pale gray light spilled in through the living room windows, casting soft shadows on the coffee table, where two wine glasses still sat half-full, untouched after their second pour. The scent of lavender, faint and calming, lingered in the air, drifting in from the candle Carol had lit the night before.
Katherine lay on the couch beneath a warm fleece throw, her body curled toward the backrest, facing the cushions. Her eyes were open, staring blankly. She hadn’t slept much. She hadn’t even changed out of her dress. She had taken off the earrings at some point, she remembered, but everything else clung to her—the makeup, the ache in her chest, the fog of too many emotions she hadn’t sorted yet.
Kingsley.
His name alone left a heaviness on her chest.
It wasn’t just the call, it was what it did to her. It was the way one name could peel back all the armor she’d built for herself, undo months of healing in the span of a few seconds. It was the shame she felt for freezing, for not knowing what to do, for walking away from Jordan without giving him an explanation he deserved.
But it was also something deeper.
She’d blocked Kingsley.
Really, finally, truly.
And now the silence he left behind was a different kind of quiet, one that wasn’t haunted by waiting for him to reach out, or hoping he never would. It was final. It was clean. It should’ve felt like victory. Maybe it did. But it also felt like the closing of a book she hadn’t wanted to end that way, no matter how damaged the pages had become.
“Morning,” Carol’s voice said gently from the kitchen.
Katherine stirred and sat up slowly, pulling the throw over her lap. “Morning.”
Carol, wrapped in a robe and holding two mugs of coffee, stepped into the living room and handed her one. “Did you sleep at all?”
“Barely,” Katherine murmured. “You?”
Carol shrugged, sipping from her mug. “On and off. I was worried about you.”
Katherine looked down at the swirl of steam rising from her coffee. “Thanks for letting me stay.”
“You always have a place here,” Carol said softly. “You don’t even have to ask.”
There was a pause.
Then Carol sat down beside her. “Hope you are feeling alright now?”
Katherine took a breath. “I don’t even know what to feel. I feel… torn. Stupid. Guilty. Angry. Confused.”
“That’s fair,” Carol said.
Katherine looked up at her. “When I saw his name, Carol, my hands started shaking. My heart dropped. I thought I was fine. I thought I was over him. But I wasn’t. And I hate that I wasn’t.”
Carol reached over, brushing a strand of hair from her friend’s cheek. “That’s trauma, Kate. That’s not love. It’s the wound he left behind. It doesn’t mean you still want him. It means he still hurt you.”
Katherine’s throat tightened. “It just… ruined everything with Jordan.”
“No, it didn’t.”
“I left,” she whispered. “I walked away from him. After he opened his heart to me. I didn’t even explain.”
Carol leaned back, thoughtful. “You know what I think? Jordan’s a good man. He’s patient. He saw what was happening and didn’t push. He just asked you to think. He gave you space. He’ll understand if you explain.”
“But I don’t even know how I feel anymore,” Katherine admitted. “I like Jordan. I do. And part of me wants to move forward. But then something like this happens and I’m… frozen.”
Carol nodded. “So unfreeze slowly. One step at a time.”
They drank in silence for a moment, letting the morning settle around them like a blanket.
Then Katherine looked over, her voice quieter. “Do you ever think I’ll be okay? Like… really okay?”
Carol smiled sadly. “You already are. You just don’t see it yet. You’re not where you want to be, but you’re not where you used to be either. That matters.”
Tears welled in Katherine’s eyes, but she didn’t wipe them away this time. She let them fall. Quiet. Honest. Needed.
“I blocked him,” she said again. “I really did it.”
“You did,” Carol nodded. “And I’m proud of you.”
Katherine exhaled, shakily. “So now what?”
“Now,” Carol said gently, “you rest. You take the day. You take a breath. You remember who the hell you are. And when you’re ready… maybe you send Jordan a message. Or maybe you just show up at your café and give yourself a day to feel normal again. Whatever it is, you do it for you.”
Katherine nodded, pressing the warm mug to her lips, letting the steam comfort her.
There was no rush. No pressure. No noise in her phone. Just quiet. Healing. And the slow, steady beginning of peace.