The Truth

Chapter 7:

Three days of silence passed before Jake showed up at Mia's apartment, soaked completely through from the rain, no umbrella in sight, like he hadn't planned the trip at all — like he'd simply started walking somewhere, anywhere, and ended up at her door without quite meaning to.

"I messed up," he said, the second she opened the door, water dripping steadily from his hair down onto his jacket, his shoes squelching against her doormat.

"Jake, you're soaked—"

"I don't care. I need to say this before I lose my nerve, and if I stand out here in the hallway any longer I'm going to talk myself out of it." He stepped inside without waiting for an invitation, water dripping onto her hardwood floor in dark, spreading spots, and took both her hands in his, cold and damp against her warm ones. "I'm in love with you, Mia. I think I have been for a long time now, maybe longer than I've wanted to admit, even to myself. This was never just benefits for me. Not after the first night. Maybe not ever, if I'm being completely honest."

Mia's breath caught somewhere in her throat. "Jake—"

"You don't have to say it back," he said quickly, before she could continue, his eyes searching hers, nervous and open in a way she'd rarely seen from him. "I just needed you to know, whatever happens next. Because I'm done pretending this is casual when it's the realest, most important thing I have in my life right now. I'd rather tell you the truth and lose you than keep lying to both of us and lose you slowly, piece by piece, every time I laugh something off because I'm scared."

Tears filled her eyes, hot and sudden. "I've been so scared to say it first," she whispered, her voice barely above a breath. "I kept thinking if I said it, and you didn't feel the same, I'd lose you completely. The friendship, everything we've built over eight years, all of it, gone in one conversation."

"You won't lose me. Mia, I'm not going anywhere. I've never wanted to go anywhere. That's the whole problem — I want to stay, and staying scares me more than anything else ever has."

"I love you too," she said, the words finally breaking free after weeks, maybe months, of holding them back behind careful rules and careless jokes. "I have for a while now. Longer than I probably realized, if I'm honest."

Jake let out a breath like he'd been holding it for months, his shoulders dropping, some tension she hadn't even realized he was carrying finally easing away. He pulled her into his arms, rain and all, soaking her shirt through in an instant, and neither of them cared. He kissed her — not like their first night together, careful and unsure and testing the waters, but like something that had finally, after all this time, found exactly where it belonged.

They stood there in her small entryway for a long time, just holding each other, rainwater pooling on the floor around their feet, neither of them in any hurry to move. Eventually Mia laughed softly against his shoulder.

"You're getting my floor all wet."

"Sorry," Jake said, not sounding sorry at all, still holding her close. "I ran here. I think I ran the whole way, actually. I don't really remember deciding to leave my apartment."

"You ran here? In this rain? Without an umbrella?"

"I told you. I didn't plan this. I just needed to see you and tell you the truth before I found some new way to avoid it."

Mia pulled back just enough to look at him properly, taking in his soaked hair, his rain-streaked face, the raw honesty still sitting there in his expression, unguarded in a way she'd never quite seen from him before. "Get out of those wet clothes before you catch pneumonia. I'll make tea."

"Mia."

"Yeah?"

"I meant every word."

"I know," she said softly, reaching up to brush a piece of wet hair from his forehead. "I meant mine too."

They spent the rest of that night wrapped together on her couch, dry clothes and warm tea and quiet conversation that felt entirely different now that the biggest truth between them had finally been spoken out loud. There was no fear left in it, no careful rules to dance around. Just two people who had finally stopped pretending, letting themselves feel exactly what they'd been feeling for months.