For months, we acted like a couple. At least, that’s how I understood what was happening between us. There was enough closeness for me to believe my feelings had somewhere to go, even though I hadn’t said them out loud.
When I finally did, she told me her priorities had shifted.
That answer left me with an uncomfortable uncertainty. I don’t know whether we had once wanted the same thing and missed the moment, or whether I’d been giving our closeness a meaning she didn’t share. Her answer told me where she stood then. It didn’t explain all the months before it.
Now we’re building a business together. There’s still a reason to stay connected, still something ahead of us that we’re both helping create. That makes the usual idea of moving on feel strangely impractical. I can’t simply let the connection fade while we’re actively building another kind of partnership.
I want to take her answer seriously. I also haven’t stopped having the feelings that made me confess in the first place. Both things are true, and working together doesn’t give either one much room to disappear.
The business is something we’re building together. A relationship is something I wanted. How do I keep showing up for one without quietly waiting for the other?
