Emilia looked up at Tate. The tears were still rolling down her cheeks, though it did nothing to mask the complete confusion that was taking her over. Her mouth was moving slightly as she tried to put words to the thoughts she couldn’t find heads or tails on. The numbness she had existed in the past few days had given way to a mess of feelings that she couldn’t tell apart, and now that Tate was telling how she was feeling and how she had felt… it should have been a relief that someone was able to tell her, but instead… Slowly, she shook her head. “I should have dumped you?” she murmured, and as if in a trance, she got to her feet, still holding Art, and started making her way down the street toward the Quarante Sept.
She had just los- David had just died. She hadn’t lost him. She had ended things with him and then he had died, and now Tate wanted her to dump him because he didn’t make her happy? Right now, it felt like nothing would ever make her happy, though that small part of reason that was still left in the back of her mind, reminded her that she had gone through losing people before, and it was possible to feel happiness after losing a loved one. “Okay,” she sighed, if Tate wanted her to dump him, then she would do it, because he had a lot of stress going on and she was… she was tired. She was exhausted. And she didn’t have the energy to convince him that she loved him, that she had ended things with David, because when she was with him, her mind and heart had been with Tate, that she had found she could no longer compartmentalize what she had with them, and David didn’t deserve being with someone who wasn’t there wholeheartedly.
Reaching the front door of the building, she left it open so Tate could follow if he wanted to, though she had to stop and wait for the lift.