Page 164 of A Solid Guide to Surviving a Situationship

Okay.

The word sat there, hollow.

I nodded, even if it didn’t feel like enough.

“I… I wanted to see you,” I started, my voice catching slightly. “I just—I didn’t want to do this over text.”

He didn’t respond. He just watched.

And there was something in his expression.

My God!

It wasn’t anger. Not even sadness. It was just… distance. He became a ghost I could see but couldn’t touch.

Still, I forced myself to continue.

“I’m sorry,” I said, the words coming out quicker now, like I was afraid they wouldn’t land if I didn’t say them fast enough. “For—for what I said. For how I said it. I didn’t mean to raise my voice. I didn’t mean to come at you like that.”

My fingers tightened.

“I just—I was frustrated,” I added, stumbling heavily over my words. “Not at you… I mean—no, not like that. I wanted to be there for you, and I didn’t know how, and it came out wrong and⁠—”

I stopped, breath uneven.

He was still looking at me.

Still unreadable… or maybe not unreadable. Because if I looked closely enough, I saw it, something in his face.

In the slight tension of his jaw.

In the way his eyes didn’t soften.

It felt like… discomfort. Even disgust… at my presence.

It seemed me being there didn’t sit right with him. Like he was tolerating me.

My chest tightened, but I kept going anyway.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I said, softer now. “I know you’ve been through things before, and I shouldn’t have—” I paused, choosing my words carefully, because I was afraid that one wrong thing would break everything.

“But you know,” I added, gently. “I, too, have been hurt… by you. Before. And—I—I forgave you for it. I stayed.”

The silence that followed felt sharper than anything said.

“I’m not saying that to blame you,” I quickly added, panic creeping in. “I just—I thought maybe we could—work through what I did. Together. Like we always do.”

Nothing.

Victor leaned back slightly, his expression tightening in a way that made something inside my stomach drop.

Then he said it.

“I don’t know.”

My breath caught.

“I need time.”