i lean back against the cool brick wall outside catch la , gripping my phone so tightly it might crack. my brain is still catching up , replaying her words over and over like a broken record. the person that has been missing from my life has been you. she says it so plainly , like it’s the easiest truth in the world. like she didn’t just rip open something i’d spent years trying to seal shut.
the noise of west hollywood hums around me — traffic , music spilling out of bars , laughter from people whose biggest problem tonight is deciding where to get a drink. but here i am , standing on the sidewalk , stuck in a moment i never saw coming. i exhale slowly , dragging a hand down my face , trying to process what the hell just happened. “ rhea … ” i start , but i hesitate , shaking my head slightly. i don’t know what to say.
not because i don’t care. not because i don’t feel something. but because i wasn’t expecting this. i wasn’t expecting her to call. i wasn’t expecting her to sound so broken. and i sure as hell wasn’t expecting her to say that. for a second , i consider overanalyzing this — breaking it down , picking it apart like i would a pitching sequence. but that’s not what she needs right now.
she doesn’t need me to ask why now ? or what changed ? or how do i even respond to this when i wasn’t prepared for it ? she needs something solid. something real. i take a deep breath and steady my voice. “ look , i don’t know if i can say the right thing right now , ” i admit , because i refuse to throw out some empty , meaningless response. “ but i do know that i don’t want you sitting in this alone. not tonight. ”
i glance through the restaurant window , catching sight of mookie still laughing at something freddie said. it’s like a reminder that my life kept moving forward , that i built something stable after everything fell apart. but now , rhea is here — well , not here , but in my ear , in my head , in my everything at the moment — asking me to be there for her. and the truth is , i want to be.
“ i’m in l.a ... ” i say after a moment , my voice softer. “ we’ve got a homestand tomorrow if you … want to come out. ” i don’t add any pressure , don’t tell her she should or shouldn’t , don’t make it more complicated than it already is. i just put the offer out there.
and now , all i can do is wait.