“I THINK I LOVE YOGA EVEN MORE NOW,” I WHISPER AS WE walk out of the studio that I’ll never be able to look at the same way again.

    Heading down the hallway and toward the front desk, Ind a yful p on Gwen’s perfect ass. Her only reaction is to throw her head back andugh. I follow her, drawn to that sound like I have been since day one.

    But the perfect momentes to a screeching, heart-stopping, stomach-dropping halt when I look up and see Tripp at the front reception desk, arms propped against the t surface. Sizzling fury dances over his every feature.

    Gwen and I both stop in our tracks. All the lines I’ve run through in my head, that I thought would be perfect to exin this whole thing to him, evaporate on the spot.

    “Hey, Dad.” He spits the word. “Good to see ya. And you, Gwen.” He nods in her direction without so much as looking at her. She doesn’t respond, but from beside her, I can hear her swallow.

    I too am at a loss for words because we know.

    We know that this is about as obvious a way for Tripp to find out as possible.

    “I figured I’de by to pick your brain about some weird vibes I was catching during her birthday. I thought maybe I was out to lunch, thought I was making it all up until I mentioned it to my momst night. She apparently doesn’t tell me much, but she at least had the balls to tell me about my birthday party. That she saw you slip into a powder room with my girlfriend before you tore out of their house in a rampage, leaving a hole in the wall.”

    My heart stops, turns to concrete in my chest. Fucking Cecilia. Of course, she’d have seen that. And of course she’d have to y the hero by being the one to tell Tripp about it at the worst moment possible.

    I give Gwen’s hand a soft squeeze as I step in front of her. She returns it, and Tripp’s narrowed eyestch on to the contact between us.

    “Tripp—” Gwen starts, but he cuts her off, arms shing across the air in front of him.

    “No, Gwen, I don’t want to hear from you. I want to hear from Bash. I want you”—he points at me—“to look me in the eye and tell me you are not fucking my girlfriend.”

    Rage shes hot and bright as I step toward him, closing the distance between us. I drop my voice, opting for low and threatening. “If you think I’m going to stand here and let you talk about her like that, you’ve got another thinging. So watch your damn mouth.”

    His jaw twitches as his eyes skitter behind me, and for a moment, he looks remorseful.

    But truthfully, I don’t even want him so much as looking at her right now, so I draw his attention back with a snap of my fingers. “And I think you mean ex-girlfriend, Tripp.”

    I quickly nce over at Gwen. She’s turned the color of a beet and appears as though she would like to run and hide. And god, I can’t me her. This is truly a fucking mess.

    “Well, she sure as shit wasn’t my ex-girlfriend when you yanked her into a bathroom with you at my parents’ house.”

    “I didn’t—”

    He forges ahead, fury shaking his voice now. “You think you can just roll back into my life, try to foster some sort of rtionship with me, and steal my girlfriend all in one fell swoop? You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve—”

    I lose it then. I cut him off and say the one thing that’s been echoing in my head for months now. My voice isn’t quiet at all when I confess, “I saw her first!”

    Silence descends between all of us.

    It’s a childish sentiment, and yet it’s true. I saw her first. She was mine first. Whether we knew it at the time, that night changed our lives.

    “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he says, looking utterly disgusted by this entire conversation.

    I step ahead again, wanting to put myself between him and Gwen. “We met months before you knew who she was. In fact, the same week that I met you for the first time.”

    He scoffs now, like he doesn’t believe me. “Oh, that’s very convenient for you, Bash. Nice try.”

    “It’s true.” Gwen’s velvety voice filters from behind me. She steps slightly to the side so she has a clear view of Tripp, but she doesn’t move any closer. “What he’s telling you is true. We did meet first.”

    “Oh, well, how cute for you, Gwen. Bouncing from dick to dick, ticking off the family tree like a shopping li—”

    I see red. Every excuse for his behavior flies out the window the minute he spews that venom at her. I reach for him, but Gwen pulls me back. It leaves my hand in the air between us, index finger pointing at him, shaking with rage.

    His eyes widen as mine scorch him where he stands. “Finish that sentence and I swear to god not a single thing will stop me from teaching you a fucking lesson, Tripp.”

    His head tilts in consideration and I re at him, holding myself back from starting a brawl with my own fucking kid.

    “Oh, a lesson, Dad? You already taught me that you’ll pick some random chick over your own son, so I can’t wait to see what else you’lle up with.”

    “When you act like this, it makes the decision pretty fucking easy,” I bite back.

    Tripp looks instantly stricken. Like I’veid hands on him when I haven’t. I attempt to soften the blow with “Obviously, we all need to talk about this. But if you think you’re going to stand here and disrespect her while we do, think again.”

    “Oh, I’m sorry. Am I supposed to be paying her a ton of respect when she knowingly went after my father?”

    I blink at him and lower my hand in defeat, wondering how it must feel to be so sure of yourself. To be so certain that you’re right. So absolute in your own innocence.

    I can’t rte.

    “Tripp. How could she possibly have known that I was your father when we all know that the story you tell is that your deadbeat dad decided to show back up?”

    His red cheeks go pale and he wipes his hand over his mouth as though pulling away a piece of tape that has been silencing him. “That’s what I was told!”

    His voice rings through the small studio as my train of thought turns fuzzy. Because what does that mean?

    “I spent my entire life being told my dad was some loser deadbeat who didn’t want me. They didn’t pretend Eddie was my biological dad. They told me I was unwanted. That my dad found out about me and took off. Like that was somehow more ptable. So imagine my surprise when you showed up. Started texting me. Taking an interest. That was almost too good to be true. It all felt like one big cosmic joke, one that I was never quite sure was real.”

    All the air in my chest leaves in an audible oof. My palmnds against my sternum as though it can press any shred of oxygen back into my lungs.

    “She told you that?” My voicees out so quiet, so unsteady, and the pounding in my ears is so loud that I wonder if he can hear me at all.

    “Yes!” His arms shoot out, frustration spilling from his every movement. “So in the past several months, I’ve had toe to terms with the fact that my mom is a maniptive liar and that the man who fathered me did actually give a damn, but I missed years with him because of whatever fucked-up family dynamic I have. I tried to tell you. I wanted to tell you. But the timing was never right. Now I find out you’re… what, dating my ex?”

    He barks out a disbelievingugh, raking his hands through his hair as he looks around the room like this is a fever dream. “Might as well air it all out now. Because nothing could be more twisted than that.”

    Nausea roils in my stomach, and Gwen squeezes my hand in a steady rhythm. It feels as though the pressure of her touch is the only thing keeping my heart beating right now.

    Silence swells between us as my mouth opens and closes, searching for words that just won’te. The unfairness of how this all yed out guts me. I feel like I’ve been left dangling upside down.

    “Tripp, I’m… Fuck. I’m sorry. If I had known—”

    “You wouldn’t have fucked my ex-girlfriend?”

    I straighten, because as messy as this all is, there’s a part of me that wouldn’t have done a single thing differently. I do feel bad for him, but I can’t undo this either.

    “Listen to me. I know what kind of person I am. I know what happened between your mom and me. And you have to believe me when I tell you that if I had known you existed, I would have been in your life from day one. But I wasn’t given that choice. It’s not fair. To you or to me. The first night I met Gwen was on the heels of meeting you for the first time. I told her all about you and how badly I wanted to be a part of your life.”

    “That’s your takeaway from all of this?” Tripp replies, looking absolutely shocked.

    “Things are rarely as simple as they seem. I can’t exin the choices your mom made. I don’t condone them. But I won’t spend a lifetime paying for them either. She’s already taken enough from me. I want a rtionship with you. That’s true. But I’m not giving up Gwen. That’s also true. I’ve spent far too long missing out on things that make me happy, and I’m not choosing between these two things. It might take time, and I know we’re going to need to have more conversations, but I just… I’m not giving her up, Tripp. I’m sorry.”

    A weight lifts from my shoulders as I finally admit it out loud. It’s a relief to face the reality of what I’ve known for months now.

    I choose Gwen.

    He scoffs in disbelief, head shaking as he takes a step back and lifts both hands in surrender. “Wow. This is really something else. Un-fucking-believable if I think about it. It’s one thing to be betrayed by some girl I dated for a blink of an eye. It’s entirely another to be betrayed by you.”

    Heunches his missile, and it hits its intended target. Me, right in the fucking chest. Because this is a betrayal.

    I won’t take that away from him.

    “Tripp. Maybe we can all go somewhere and talk this out,” Gwen says, her voice calm and even. She’s being supportive, but the damage has already been done.

    Heughs, harsh and bitter. It’s augh that hurts.

    I feel fucking sick, and that feeling doesn’t abate when he turns away. I reach for him, but he jerks his arm away from me.

    “Don’t touch me,” he bites out, marching away. “And don’t follow me. I can’t even look at you.” As he shoves the door open roughly, he calls back, “I hope you two are fucking happy together. Have a nice life.”

    The bell above the door jingles, sounding too light for the weight of that conversation. And when he’s gone, I’m torn between wanting to run after him to exin and being too stunned to move.

    We stand staring at the door. Through the window, I see his rental car pull away, and I can’t help but hope that he drives safely even though he’s rightfully distraught.

    I turn to Gwen, who looks shaken and a little bit nervous. “Come here,” I say, and she does, instantly stepping into my arms. I wrap them around her and drop a kiss on the top of her head. “We’re going to work this out.”

    “Bash,” she breathes, “I’m so sorry. This is—”

    “No. Stop apologizing when you’ve done nothing wrong. It’s moreplicated than either of us knew.” I sigh roughly, holding her tighter and breathing in her scent as I confess my feelings. “Deep down, I was prepared for this. For telling him. Maybe not like this—god, never like this—but I’ve known it wasing and that it wouldn’t be pretty. There was just no way around hurting him.”

    I pull away, cradling her face gently in my hands as I crouch slightly to look her in the eye. “Because what I keeping back to is this: I can’t live without you.”

    She peeks up at me and swallows, eyes glistening as she gives me a quick nod.

    “I hate having to leave you like this, but I have to go.” A quick nce at my watch tells me I’m cutting it close.

    “I know,” she whispers. “We can talk when you get back.”

    “When I get back.” I look her over carefully, searching for any signs of that part of her that wants to keep moving. The part that’s scared of settling down, the one I worry might pick up and leave at any moment. Everything here is messy. Costa Rica is on the horizon. Why would she stay? “Don’t go, okay? I know everything here isplicated and terrifying. But don’t run this time. Please stay. We will work it all out.” I give her shoulders a squeeze, getting lost in her pale purple irises, swimming with emotion right now. “For me, just… stay.”

    With that, I nt one long kiss on her perfectly plush lips. I should try to postpone my departure, but all I want is to flee. I want to work so I can be distracted. I want to process the weight of what Tripp just unloaded on me. And it all feels like too much to unpack. My hope is that, with a few days of distance, it might look more manageable.

    I pour as much of myself as I can into this one kiss, begging her to stay, begging her to wait, begging her to make it through this thing with me. Because I have a sinking suspicion that what’s on the other side of this struggle might be… everything.

    I just have to figure out how to keep it.