Exactly What To Say Novels & Stories

Walk closer. Not crowding her. Just enough that she can’t pretend I’m not there. “We need to talk.” She sets the glass down carefully, like she’s buying time. “About what?” I watch her for a second. Then another. Deciding how to say this. Because I don’t do speeches. People say too much when they’re trying to convince you of something. But I’m not trying to convince her. I’m telling her what is. “About this,” I say simply.

𝘐 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵. 19- 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘷𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘢𝘯d 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢 𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭

“Then talk to me. Tell me everything you feel and want to say to Alex. And I mean EVERYTHING. Let it all out and see how you feel. Can you just do that for me?” “Okay, but I don’t even know where to start.” “Start from the beginning. Tell Alex how you felt when he left. Start from there up until now.”

Alex: "Do I need a reason to talk to you?" Zoe: "Well no but I was wondering if you did have a reason or not." Alex: "Nope, no reason! Just wanted to talk to you." Zoe:??? Alex: "I was going to say I miss you but I don't know how you are going to take it." Me: "oh." Alex: "yeah!" Zoe: "I miss you too." Alex: "You made my day." Zoe: "sure." Alex: "I'm serious Zoe!"

"You never once let it stop you. I just want you to know I see that." I pressed my fingers against my eyes. "Don't do this before I've had coffee." "I'm done. I'm done. Go get your man." "He's not—" "Go. Get. Your man." She hung up. * * * I had a plan. The plan involved a real conversation — measured, clear, adult. I was going to say the specific things I needed to say and not say the things I didn't mean and not let the fear of saying the wrong thing compress everything into something too small to carry the actual weight of it. I had the sentences mostly organized. I knew the opening. I knew the three points. I knew how I wanted it to land.

Rosa says. “I don’t know...” I say. Rosa sips the hot chocolate and sighs “If you have feelings for her, just tell her” Rosa says. “Are you insane!” I say as I highly raise my voice. Rosa laughs as she stares at me “Just make everything clear” Rosa says.

“I'm sorry for this sudden convo, but I have a feeling you know what it is about already” “Yeah,” “Then, shall I proceed?”

I pull myself together and say, "I'm pretty sure the first rule of negotiating is to not say I have exactly what you need and you'll do anything to get it." He shrugs and says, "In the little time I've known you, I've learned that you aren't very good at asking for a lot. Hopefully, having three months to mull it over gives you time to come up with something good."

Thank you for saying it. He put the phone down. He thought: that's the whole thing, in four words. Thank you for saying it. Not: I was right. Not: you were wrong. Not: let's never speak of this again. Just: thank you for giving me the information I needed. He thought: he's going to be good at this. He thought: we both are. ---

I have to make sure what happened and I also have to make sure about what should be the topic of conversation or a fact that I have to express very well. “What do you want to say that makes you want to go out this way? If you really want to go, make sure you take care of everything well and of course this is something you have to emphasize without involving any other things or existing cases. However, the problem is that this is one of the things that really has to be thought about carefully and of course this will always be a question mark that really makes me curious."