Marvis POV
She was slipping from me.
Every step she took away during that party, every smile she forced in front of strangers…felt like another nail sealing shut a door I was too slow to walk through.
I didn't mean to grab her wrist. But I did.
Didn't mean to drag her through the crowd like a storm either. Yet somehow, we ended up here… inside a marble-tiled bathroom at the far end of the hall, door shut, echoing silence pressing against us.
Melody stared at me like I'd lost my mind.
"Seriously, Marvis?" she said, breath short. "What are you doing?"
I didn't know. Not exactly.
All I knew was the ache in my chest. The one that started the second she walked into that room wearing that dress, looking like every part of her had moved on… except her eyes.
Her eyes still searched for me.
"I can't keep pretending," I said quietly.
She crossed her arms. "Pretending what?"
"That you don't matter."
Her expression flickered. Something soft. Then hard again.
"You left me."
"I was trying to protect you."
"By throwing me out?"
"I didn't know how else to deal with what I was feeling, Melody."
She shook her head. "You always do this, shut me out, pull me close, then shut me out again. I'm not a game you can pause and play when it suits you."
"I know."
I took a step closer.
She backed into the sink, jaw tense, but she didn't tell me to stop.
"I was scared," I admitted. "Of what you made me feel. Of what you'd find if you looked too closely."
Melody didn't say a word.
So I kept going.
"When I lost sight of you at the party tonight, something in me panicked. Like I couldn't breathe. Like I was missing something I didn't even realize I'd come to depend on."
Her brows furrowed.
"And when you showed up again... smiling like nothing ever happened between us... I couldn't take it."
"Then what do you want, Marvis?" she whispered.
It was a dangerous question. Loaded.
I reached out slowly, fingertips grazing her hand…not holding it, not gripping, just enough to let her feel the warmth of it. She didn't pull away.
"I want the truth," I said. "No walls. No pride. Just… you."
Her breathing hitched.
I leaned forward not too close but enough that I could feel the energy pulsing between us like a live wire.
Our foreheads nearly touched. Not quite. Almost.
The heat of her skin was a gravity I couldn't resist. My hand lifted and hovered near her cheek. I didn't touch. Not fully. Just enough for her to feel that I wanted to.
Melody didn't move.
Her lips parted, but she didn't speak.
We stood like that. The air thick. The silence louder than any confession.
She was staring at me like she wanted to say something, maybe scream at me, maybe fall into me.
Instead, she whispered, "Then show me. Don't just say it."
My hand dropped to my side. My voice cracked in my throat.
"If I did, Melody… if I let everything out… I wouldn't be able to stop."
"Then don't stop," she said, barely a breath.
It wasn't a touch but it was everything just shy of it.
I leaned in, forehead pressing gently against hers this time. Her eyes fluttered shut. My fingers slid to the back of her neck, thumb brushing just under her ear.
And we stayed there. Not moving. Not breathing. Just suspended in this fragile, heart-heavy space we'd been dancing around for too long.
I could feel her pulse. Fast.
Mine matched it.
And yet we never crossed the line.
Didn't need to.
Because in that moment, it wasn't about physical closeness.
It was about all the feelings we never said aloud.
About being held by someone without being touched.
About being seen fully for the first time.
When she finally pulled back, just slightly, her eyes were wet. Not crying. Just overwhelmed.
And she said, "I believe you now."
That did something to me. Broke and healed me all at once.
I nodded. Swallowed hard. "Good."
She turned toward the mirror, fixing her hair in silence. Composing herself. We both knew we couldn't stay in there forever.
But before she reached for the door, she looked over her shoulder and whispered, "Don't make me regret trusting you again."
I stepped aside.
But as she walked out of the bathroom, I stayed behind hand still tingling where I'd almost held hers, head still reeling from all the words we didn't need to say out loud.
And deep down, I knew…
I'd never be able to let her go again.