Part 7 of The Space Between Us: If We Stay | Desire Lines
DL - They were sitting on the floor again.
No music. No distractions.
Just the ticking of the clock and the space between their thoughts.
It had been a hard week. Not because of fights, but because of honesty.
Noah had told her about a job offer.
A good one.
In another city.
Three hours away.
“I haven’t said yes,” he told her.
“But you haven’t said anything either.”
Livia stared at the window, watching raindrops slide like uncertain choices.
She didn’t know what to say.
Because the question wasn’t just will you leave?
It was also will I ask you to stay?
Later that night, as they brushed their teeth side by side, she looked at his reflection in the mirror.
“You know,” she said quietly, “every time I’ve loved someone before you… it was with my hands half-closed. I never really offered all of me.”
He turned the water off.
“And now?”
She met his eyes.
“Now, I’m still scared. But I want to try. I want to stop waiting for you to disappear.”
Noah didn’t speak right away.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper. It was folded, worn.
“I wrote this after the night we didn’t talk for three days,” he said.
“I didn’t know if I’d ever give it to you.”
He handed it to her.
She unfolded it carefully.
“If I stay, it won’t be because I have nowhere else to go.
It’ll be because no place feels more like home than wherever you are.”
Livia’s chest tightened.
Not from fear.
From clarity.
She stepped closer.
“Then stay,” she whispered. “Not because I asked you. But because… you want to build something here with me.”
Noah nodded, not dramatically. Just surely.
And in that small, wordless moment, the decision was made.
Not with fireworks. Not with rings.
But with two people choosing, quietly, bravely, to begin again.
To be continued...
Next Chapter: “The Fear of Being Chosen”