He’d honestly, truly thought that’s what Rhi would want. She could go off and do her own thing, move on and Nate could be the one that while everything was great, he’d be stuck with the horrible feeling that losing their friendship caused. Besides the fact that he deserved to feel something horrible for the amount of pain he’d caused her… He just wanted her to be happy again and Nate wasn’t sure that after all that had happened his presence would be any good for her. In fact, he was pretty convinced it’d be a horrible idea. That it would make her think of things she didn’t want to and all that junk. Nate would be damned before he went and filled her life with any more pain than he already had and if that meant stepping away, well, he’d do it.
In his mind it was more like once he had Marlene that everything else would have to change. Maybe not a lot but at least slightly. The ‘secret’ had come out and everything had blown up in his face. It was easier this way. It just was. He didn’t like it at all but what else was he meant to do? Be an even bigger ass and refuse to let her out of his life? No. That was her choice and apparently he’d misinterpreted everything which wasn’t that big of a surprise.
That was certainly weird to hear. It was true for him as well but being caught off guard like this meant he didn’t have much time to process it. She wasn’t happy. Well even if she’d been trying to hide that he’d have known if he’d just been around. There wasn’t much for him to say right now unless he wanted to fuck up again and yet if he didn’t say anything? She was going to leave. “Why would you want to have anything to do with me now?” It was something that had been bugging him for ages now and he might as well get an answer. “I thought you’d get over it and move on and I’d end up being the one who was pissed over a lost friendship.” It just made more sense that way! Then again, he should have learnt by now that none of their lives made much sense. … And what did he say? She was walking away again.
“Rhi,” he called after her, finally moving from the doorway to follow her and move to stand in her path. Hey, if she really did want to leave she could pushed past him but as far as Nate was concerned this conversation was far from over. “I’m not letting you walk away.” She wanted him to prove it so all he could do was try.