Summer, who was going to probably be doing a lot of wincing throughout this whole conversation, winced again, each one of those little protestations or misplaced apologies feeling like a little spray of teeny-tiny slivers in her chest, and she kind of had to remind herself that he was definitely right about a lot of this stuff, and this really was on her for letting it keep going on until she found herself ramming up hard against the reality of it.

"And I know you didn't," she said, sounding a little desperate herself because it really felt like there was no good way to explain it, but she did reach out and try to gently take one of those twisting hands. "And you were great about that. I mean, I was just flitting off to New York on random weekends, and you were totally fine with it and didn't ask any questions, and there's no way I'm getting a deal like that anywhere else, that's for damn sure. And I guess all stuff like that did was make it feel like it wasn't all that serious, but a year, Stark? That's a big number. That's a lot, especially when In a Relationship really isn't a Status I even wanted. Not right now, anyway. Not in my twenties. And it was fun and it was nice, and I really do love you a lot, but I didn't really want to end up here again. But it was easy, and so I did, and now I'm realizing that it's only going to get harder and harder..."