Chapter Two: Say It Again

POV: Haley

The day drags in the worst way.

I clean the kitchen twice, reorganize my desk down to the pens and start three different texts to Avriel, deleting every one before I hit send.

None of it fixes anything.

By six, my phone lights up on the counter.

Nathan: outside

---

"You're quiet." Nathan glances over, one hand draped over the wheel, headlights catching the rain on the windshield in streaks. "That's never a good sign with you."

"I'm fine."

"You've said fine three times since we left your building." He counts it off on his fingers without looking away from the road, which almost gets a laugh out of me despite everything. "That's not a good number, Haley."

"Maybe I just like the word."

"Sure you do." He reaches for the radio, changes his mind, drops his hand back to the wheel. "Nervous about tonight?"

"Should I be?"

"No, Kai's actually quite chill." A smile pulls at the corner of his mouth. "Even if he might be insufferable for the first twenty minutes."

I press my palm flat against the seat instead of answering, the vinyl cold enough to focus on.

The restaurant comes up on the right, valet stand out front, a doorman already reaching for the car door before Nathan's fully parked. Nathan's undoing his seatbelt before I've even processed we've stopped.

"Come on." He's out of the car before I've undone mine. "You're gonna love him."

He has no idea how wrong that sentence already is.

---

Inside smells like cedar and something expensive I can't name. Conversation hums low under the clink of real silver against real china, and a hostess greets Nathan by his last name like she's said it a hundred times before.

"This way." She leads us past a wall of dark wood toward the back, and I see him before we reach the booth.

He's got his sleeves rolled to the elbow even here, like the dress code stopped mattering somewhere around the second course, one arm slung along the back of the booth while he says something to the waitress that makes her laugh.

Then he looks up, and whatever he's saying dies mid-word.

My stomach drops so fast I have to stop walking for a second. Nathan doesn't notice, already reaching out with both arms.

"Kai!"

Kai stands too fast, knocking his knee on the table leg, and he doesn't even flinch.

"You made it," Nathan says, pulling him into a hug he returns half a beat late, his eyes finding mine over Nathan's shoulder and staying there.

Heat crawls up my neck, and I look away first, immediately hating myself for that.

"This is Haley." Nathan steps back, arm settling around my waist. "My girlfriend."

"I know." Kai catches himself. "I mean, hi."

He offers his hand and I take it, his grip firmer than it needs to be, like he's compensating for something neither of us is about to say out loud in front of Nathan.

"Nathan's told me a lot about you."

"All good things, I hope."

He glances at Nathan, and they both laugh before turning their attention back to me.

---

We slide into the booth, Nathan beside me and Kai across, and for a second nobody says anything.

"This is weird." Nathan's grinning like it's the opposite of weird. "You two, in the same room. I've been picturing this for months."

"Should I be worried?" Kai's not looking at Nathan when he says it.

"Terrified." Nathan laughs, oblivious, reaching for the bread basket. "You're gonna get along so well it's actually going to annoy me."

Nobody corrects him.

"So." Kai's eyes land on me instead of the menu. "Cold in here?"

His gaze flicks, just once, toward my hands.

Only I catch what he actually means.

I curl my fingers into my palms and tuck both hands beneath the table. "A little."

"Want my jacket?" Nathan's already shrugging out of it, and something about how easily he offers it, how little he actually sees, makes my throat go tight.

"I'm good, thanks," I say, too fast.

Kai doesn't say anything else. Just watches, like he's giving me room to keep lying if I want to.

Nathan's phone buzzes and he checks it, a groan escaping him. "Work. Give me one second." He's already moving, phone at his ear before he clears the table.

---

The booth feels smaller with him gone.

Kai leans back, arms spread along the top of the booth, entirely too pleased with himself.

"So," he says. "You gonna tell him, or should I?"

"Tell him what?"

"That we've met." A slow smile. "That I watched you cry in a bathroom and you never mentioned it."

"You wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I?" He tilts his head, like he's actually weighing it, like watching me panic is half the fun. "Great story, though. 'Hey Nathan, funny thing about your girlfriend—'"

"Don't." I don't manage to make it sound like a joke.

"Relax." He's grinning, fully enjoying himself now. "Not gonna say anything. Probably."

"Probably?"

"Depends how boring dinner gets." He picks up his glass, doesn't drink, just turns it slowly between two fingers, watching me over the rim.

Under the table, my hands have started again, that same fine tremor, and I press them flat against my thighs before he can notice.

Too late. His eyes drop, just once, then come back up.

"Kai." It comes out before I decide to say it, sharper than I mean, a warning wrapped around something else I don't have a name for.

The laugh dies in his throat.

Whatever was easy about his face a second ago is gone, replaced with something else I can't put a name to.

"Say that again," he says, the words almost a whisper.

"What?"

"My name. Like that." He shakes his head once, already talking himself out of having said it. "Forget it. I'm sorry."

I don't decide to say it. It just happens, barely more than breath.

"Kai."

Something shifts behind his eyes, dark and unguarded for exactly one second, like I've reached somewhere he doesn't let people reach.

Then Nathan's voice cuts across the room. "There you guys are."

Kai straightens, and by the time Nathan's fully back at the table, his face has smoothed itself into an unbothered expression, like he's had practice doing this exact thing before.

"Sorry, that took forever." Nathan drops in beside me. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing," Kai says, reaching for his water like it's suddenly fascinating.

"Nothing," I echo.

Nathan studies me for a second, chewing slowly. "You look pale."

"Long day."

He nods, picking at the edge of his plate, already somewhere else.

"Oh. By the way." He sets his fork down. "Tell her your news."

Kai goes very still, like this wasn't the plan for tonight.

"What news?" I ask, though some part of me already knows.

"I'm transferring." Kai watches me as he says it, waiting to see what crosses my face. "To your campus. Starting Monday."

The words catch me somewhere beneath my ribs.

"That's..." I trail off. Nothing that comes after feels right.

"And get this." Nathan's already reaching for the last piece of bread. "He's crashing with us the first few weeks. Till his place is ready."

"Us," I say.

"My place. Basically his second home anyway." He shrugs, like it's already decided, because it already is. "Figured I'd mention it now so it's not weird when you see his bag in the hallway next week."

Kai's gaze holds mine. "Guess you'll have to get used to me."

"Careful." The words are out before I can stop them. "I bite."

Something sharpens in his face, fast and real.

I have absolutely no idea why I said that.

The waiter appears with the check, and Nathan looks up, eyes moving between us for one full second, like he felt something shift in the air without catching what.

Then he frowns down at the receipt instead. "They charged us for an appetizer we didn't order."

For the first time in longer than I can remember, I'm not thinking about how much time I have left.

—