Page 141 of A Solid Guide to Surviving a Situationship

Silence.

The kind that didn’t belong in a place like this.

The kind that felt like I had just walked into the middle of a conversation that ended the second I arrived.

I reached for my hot choco, more for something to do than anything else.

Andre was looking at me—not casually, not curiously. His eyes shone with a sharpness that read everything I wasn’t saying.

I cleared my throat lightly, forcing something normal into the air. “So… how are you guys?”

“Good,” Andi said.

“Yeah, good,” Honey added.

Andre just… nodded.

I nodded too, like that was enough.

I turned to Mel.

She was already looking down at her plate, avoiding my eyes.

“Mel,” I called gently. “How are you?”

She glanced up briefly, then back down, as though eye contact cost her something. “I’m okay.”

I waited.

She added, a little too quickly, “Just busy. Processing my visa for Australia, you know.”

“Oh,” I said, nodding. “That’s big.”

“It’s nothing,” she replied, shrugging it off like it didn’t matter.

But it did.

A pause followed—thin, stretched.

Andre was still looking at me, and I could feel it now, even without meeting his eyes.

Honey, sensing it, stepped in. “So,” she said, leaning forward slightly, “where have you been?”

There it was.

I let out a small breath, reaching for the easiest answer. “Busy. Work’s been tough lately. I—my client gave me more tasks than ever before. I⁠—”

“James,” Andre cut in. Not loud. Not aggressive. But firm enough to stop everything.

I looked at him, and there was no humor in his face. No softness. Just something steady and direct.

“What’s really going on?” he asked.

I opened my mouth slightly, already reaching for another version of the same lie. But he didn’t let me get far.

“Because I don’t believe you’ve just been busy at work.”

Silence settled again, but this time, heavier.