"I really have to get going, I don't usually take the train past 9pm." Fallon said, her legs draped over Trent's as they sat on the bed with bowls of pasta in their hands.

"You could just stay," Trent said, shoving another fork full of pasta in his mouth. 

Fallon sighed, "you know I can't do that."

"I know," he paused, taking her now empty bowl. "But I wish you would." He gently moved her legs aside as he got up to bring the bowls to the sink. He returned quickly and sat at the end of the bed. "I don't need a lot, I don't need the big fancy life and the lavish things, they're not important to me. But it makes them more worth having when I have someone to enjoy them with, just think about it, okay?"

"Think about what?"

Trent exhaled, "think about what you want your life to look like. Think about whether or not Matt fits that picture." Fallon sat quietly, her eyes fixed forward on the wall in front of her. "He doesn't fit your picture Fallon. Maybe at one point he did, but he doesn't now and you know it. Because if he really did fit into the life you envisioned, you wouldn't have come here to fuck me tonight."

She cringed at the way he worded his sentence, the harsh sound of the words bubbled up anger inside her. "I didn't come here to 'fuck you.' I came here to have dinner with you," she snapped back at him. 

He chuckled, "maybe, but you seemed to forget about dinner pretty quickly once you got here."

She felt her cheeks burn, a mix of embarrassment and anger. "I told you we shouldn't be doing anything!"

"Well, you didn't stop either."

She grunted in frustration, "it doesn't matter, none of it matters. It's done, I'm engaged, I'm getting married in a few months, someone at home loves me, I don't know what I'm doing. I never should have answered that fucking message from you. I never should have thought about you, I should have let you stay gone. I was fine until you were back in the picture!" Trent sat stone faced as she continued. "I don't know you anymore, there's five years between us that turned us into different people. You are not my best friend anymore. I don't know what you do, I didn't know where you lived, I most certainly didn't know that you're apparently a millionaire." She got up off the bed now, slightly pacing the length of the room. "You don't know me anymore either! You say I'm just fucking you, what about you just fucking me? The night at your house, I didn't initiate that, you did! That was my first and biggest mistake. Because I always feel the need to take care of you, I have for years. All because I came to check on you when you weren't okay. It should have never happened!" She swiped a glass off the bed side table and it shattered against the wall. Trent didn't move. "You don't understand my side of this because you aren't engaged, you don't have someone else who thinks you're just working late hours and will be home soon. You saw me as an opportunity and you took it. And now you're just so fucking charming, hopping on a plane and bringing me my ring back, like you gave a shit what happened to it anyway."

"You think I'm charming?" Trent smiled at her.

"Fuck you," she spat back at him. "You want to pretend not to hear me, fine, but this is it. You won't see me again. Go back and hide in your giant house in the middle of nowhere, with your staff and your company. Forget I exist just like you did before." He stood up and walked towards her silently and stoic. As he got closer, she realized she had backed up far enough that her shoulders were now against the wall and he was mere inches from her. He looked down at her as he stood, towering his 6'3" frame over her 5'2" build. "What're you gonna do, hit me cause you don't like what you're hearing? Corner me and expect me to be too scared to fight you back? You think you can say something to hurt me enough that I'll just give in and flip my whole life around for you?  Fucking try it Trent, your dad would be so proud."

Her words stung and she continuously attacked him, "I. Would. Never. Hurt. You." He spaced the words almost as if he was out of breath, like it had been stolen from him. She watched as his eyes seemed to change from that golden honey color to what now seemed like his pupils were too big and had taken over making his eyes appear black. "You don't have to fight me, you don't have to flip your life around, if you don't wanna know me anymore, fine. But I'm not gonna have you stand here and tell me that I used you, for anything. I loved having you at my house, my fucking fortress, I gave you the key to it because I want you there. Having sex with you is right up there with all my other favorite memories of us. Learning to ride a bike, eating pepperoni pizza for the first time," he stacked his hands on top of each other like scaffolding, "prom, graduation, college, and us having sex for the first time, all in my top memories. I understand your side. But you're telling me you don't know me anymore, well then somewhere in the last five days, I made you like the person I am now, a lot. Enough that you slept with me not once, but twice. You asked me the first time, why couldn't I just say I was in love with you back when we were younger, it's because I was naïve, scared, and you were the best thing I had and I wasn't going to risk it all. But I am not that person anymore, you're absolutely right. Because I'm not that person I'm not afraid to say that I fucking love you. I loved the old you, I love this new you I just got to know. It sounds stupid and lustful and impossible, but god Fal, you, you're everything." The color was returning to his eyes now. He placed an arm around her waist and the other hand at the nape of her neck. "I'm going to put you on this train home, then I'm going to get on a plane to go home. I won't text you, I won't call, nothing. If you want me, if you need me, you reach out, I'll be there for you. I don't mind being the bad guy, the villain, you can blame everything on me if you need to, but I won't keep doing anything that's hurting you. You're on fire when you're with me. I see it. I love it. You have a passion that burns so brightly when we're together. But you hurt so badly when you realize the situation you're in. I'm done seeing you hurt. I won't, I can't. 

"No, Trent, that's not..."

"It's not what you want. But it's what needs to happen. Go home to your fiancé, spend your time comfortably in love." He let go of her and stepped back. She immediately wished he would come back to her. "But I mean it when I tell you, if you decide you want to stoke that flame inside you, you want to burn cities to the ground with your passion, I want all of that. I'd feed that fire forever if you gave it a chance. And you can't stand here in front of me and tell me that Matt would do the same." He walked away from her, started putting on a pair of shoes, and then proceeded to pull a hoodie from his duffle bag. "Here," he said handing it to her.

She felt like she was in a trance, like her eyes had glassed over and this was a dream. She grabbed her heels from the hall by the door and sat on the small couch in the sitting area to strap them back on. Trent was already standing anxiously at the doorway. She slid the hoodie over her head and grabbed her laptop bag as she met him in the doorway. "Thank you for dinner," was all she could manage out. 

"You're welcome," he opened the door for her to step out and he followed behind her. 

"You really don't have to come with me, it's just the subway and I'm at the train station."

"It's late, you don't need to be walking around the city or in the subways alone."

She didn't fight him anymore on it. They exited the exquisite building and started towards the subway station. Somehow, it felt a lot further walking this time than when she arrived this morning to go to work. She walked ahead of Trent, him trailing only two or three steps behind her. Before they descended down the stairway, Fallon took her phone out and texted Matt to let him know she was on her way home. 

They rode the subway in silence. The space between them felt like it was getting larger with every minute that passed. Once they arrived back at the train station, it felt as though they were miles apart. As they came back up the stairs and into the main part of the station, Fallon checked the time of the train departures. It was close to 10pm at this point, later than the trains she usually takes. "There's a 9:53 you can make," Trent said.  He started towards Track 7 without checking to see if she was behind him. 

She was trailing behind now, her heels preventing her from keeping up with his quick pace. As the train's arrival was announced with a sharp blast of the whistle, Fallon's heart skipped a beat. 

There, against the pillar Trent's tall frame leaned casually, a half-hearted smile playing on his lips. His eyes, however, betrayed a hint of sadness, a reflection of the emotions that Fallon was struggling to contain. The tension between them was palpable, a heavy cloud that hung between them like an unspoken truth.

The train's whistle blew again, and passengers began to shuffle towards the open doors. Time seemed to slow as Trent and Fallon exchanged a long, lingering gaze, their eyes locked in a bittersweet embrace. Memories of their shared laughter, inside jokes, and moments of unwavering support flooded Fallon's mind, each one a testament to the bond they had built over the years.

As the last call to board echoed through the station, Fallon's resolve wavered, "I should probably get on here. Thank you for making sure I get here safe." She took a hesitant step forward, her heart yearning to bridge the gap that had formed between them. Trent's smile faltered, his eyes brimming with unspoken words. The weight of their the harsh words exchanged in anger, seemed insurmountable now. "Goodbye Trent," she whispered. The train's doors closed with a mechanical hiss, and Fallon watched helplessly as her last chance to make amends slipped away.

The train jolted to life, the wheels screeching against the tracks as it began to move. Trent's gaze remained locked on Fallon, his own heartache mirrored in his expression. As the train picked up speed, Fallon pressed her hand against the cold glass window, her tears tracing a path down her cheeks. She mouthed the words she could never say out loud, her heart aching with a profound sense of loss.

And then, with a final, heartbreaking glance, the train carried her away.