Slowly, I heard the front door open.
The TV was playing a muted documentary that I wasn't even pretending to watch, and I was snuggled up on the couch with a throw blanket over my head. It was late, beyond ten. My pulse accelerated when I heard the familiar creak of the hallway floorboard followed by the gentle thud of shoes being taken off.
Ethan.
In the dim light, his face was unreadable as he stood in the doorway of the living room. He seems... worn out. As if he hadn't slept either.
"Grace," he uttered softly. Almost apprehensive.
I remained silent. I tightened the blanket over myself and gazed at the TV screen as if it had all the solutions to our problems.
I ought not to have allowed her to call. Veronica." He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat. "It was not what it appeared to be."
"That's the issue, Ethan," I remarked in a cold voice. "It never is. Additionally, I'm sick of attempting to interpret your *mean* rather than your *say*.
He wiped his face with his hand. "Grace, I have no idea how to do this."
"This?" I looked him in the face. "You mean... being truthful? Vulnerable? in a genuine partnership?"
A slight flinch went through him. However, I did see it.
At last, he remarked, "I grew up in a household where emotions were liabilities." "Where love was conditional and stillness meant strength." something you merited.
His words fell like snow on me. Heavy, velvety, and cold.
I felt like screaming. If he wasn't prepared to live with me, I wanted to shake him and ask why he had brought me into his life. But I was stopped by something in his eyes and words.
He was making an effort. In the only language he was familiar with.
"I apologize," he said. "For everything. for keeping quiet. for making you feel isolated in this situation.
With my heart pounding, I gazed at him, unsure of how to respond to the apology I had so desperately wanted but was unable to take.
I muttered, "You don't have to be flawless." "Ethan, you simply need to *show up*. A person who always stands at the door is not someone I can make a home with.
His eyes were hazy yet unbroken as he nodded. "I'd want to give it a shot. to acquire knowledge. If you don't mind,
I could only stare at him for a time. The man who believed that walls were more secure than weapons, the guarded billionaire. And for the first time, I saw the boy underneath, the one who might yet be able to love but had never been trained to do so.
I wasn't quite forgiving of him. Not quite yet.
However, I also didn't close the door.
"All right," I answered softly. "Try."
And then, suddenly, a gap appeared between us.
Not resolved.
However, it was possible.