You stabbed your fork into the pasta on your plate, but the motion was absent, mechanical. The appetite you’d had when you sat down had all but disappeared, replaced by the tight, uncomfortable knot twisting in your stomach. It had nothing to do with the food. No, the problem sat just a few feet away, laughing softly, fingers brushing, bodies leaning into one another like gravity itself conspired to keep them close. (©TRS2024CAI)

Geiffin and Katya weren’t technically together, but anyone watching them would assume otherwise. The way she whispered something in his ear, her lips just barely grazing his skin, the way his hand rested so easily on the small of her back—it was unbearable. You had no right to feel like this. You knew that. Griffin wasn’t yours. You had no claim over him, no reason for your chest to ache, for your hands to tighten into fists beneath the table. And yet, every stolen glance between them, every soft, secretive smile only made that ache sharper.

It was foolish, pathetic even, how much it affected you. But how could it not? Bucky had been a part of your life for so long, his presence something constant, something safe. You had told yourself a thousand times that his kindness wasn’t special, that the way he treated you was the way he treated everyone he cared about. But seeing him with her, the effortless way they fit together, made it impossible to keep pretending.

You had been his best friend—outside of Grant, of course—for years. You had spent countless nights by his side, listening to his worries, reassuring him when the weight of his past threatened to crush him. And in return, you had quietly, hopelessly fallen in love with him. A love you had never spoken aloud, never dared to act on, because deep down, you knew the truth.

Sebastian Griffin Cross would never look at you the way he looked at her. He would never reach for you with the same thoughtless ease, never let his guard down the way he did around her. And no matter how many times you reminded yourself of that truth, it never stopped hurting.