⋆˙⟡ @harleyridin ✦ continued from here
He’s never had a problem with people leaving. Most eventually do. Some grow uncomfortable beneath the weight of his indifference, others decide he is cruel long before they ever understand him, and a few simply become offended when they realize money and charm do not translate into genuine interest. Atlas has never cared enough to stop them.
People are exhausting things. Loud. Emotional. Constantly demanding pieces of one another while offering very little in return. He learned a long time ago that distance is easier. Cleaner. There are only a handful of people he tolerates for extended periods of time, and even fewer allowed close enough to see anything beneath his carefully curated surface.
...Claire had become difficult to dismiss. She pushed back without hesitation, unimpressed by every advantage that usually bent people into something agreeable. She did not soften around him because he was attractive, wealthy, or useful. If anything she seemed more irritated by him because of it. And he respected that in a way he could not fully explain.
Friend or enemy, her presence had become something he sought out anticipated.
Walking away now would solve everything. He could let her continue believing he was exactly the kind of man she accused him of being ( exactly the kind of man he was ) and return to the comfort of detachment. Selfishness suited him. Apathy came naturally. He could walk away and forget she existed.
Yet he does not move. The silence stretches too long. Atlas stands there with an unfamiliar stiffness to him, uncomfortable with uncertainty that no carefully neutral expression can fully conceal. It irritates him, this hesitation. This inability to simply sever the connection and be done with it.
❝ ...Will you at least let me try? ❞ The words leave him with reluctance. Try what? Convincing her he was a good man would be pointless. Atlas has never suffered from delusion. He knows exactly what he is. ❝ Please. ❞ No, that is not what he is asking for at all.... he is asking for the chance to remain at her side.
