Read Chapter 36: The Six-Month Mark

The hotel suite smelled of champagne and fresh flowers, leftovers from the industry party they'd slipped away from an hour ago. Elise kicked off her heels by the door and wandered to the window, London's glittering skyline reflecting in the glass. Behind her, Theo loosened his tie, his reflection catching hers.

"That was interminable," she said. "Three separate producers asked me if we were really together. As if the press conference meant nothing."

"The perks of authenticity." He crossed to her, hands settling on her shoulders. "You handled it beautifully."

She leaned back against him, letting the warmth of his chest steady her. Six months. Tomorrow marked the end of their contract. The thought sat oddly in her chest—part relief, part something she refused to name. They hadn't discussed what came after. Not officially. They'd simply started living as though the contract no longer mattered.

"Julian called while you were talking to the French journalist," Theo said, his tone carefully neutral.

Elise tensed. "What did he say?"

"Goldman's finally come through." He turned her to face him, his expression unreadable. "The studio's offering you the lead in *Cobalt Sky*. Three-picture deal, shooting starts in four months."

The air left her lungs. *Cobalt Sky.* The project she'd auditioned for two years ago, before the scandal had killed everything. The role that had gone to Harper Quinn, whose career had promptly stalled because the studio had rewritten the script into oblivion. Now they wanted Elise. Wanted her redemption, her second act.

"Los Angeles," she said slowly. "Filming would be—"

"Eighteen months minimum. Maybe longer." Theo's jaw tightened. "I did the math."

She searched his face. They'd been so careful these past weeks, building something fragile and real between the film's final scenes and the endless press circuit. The premiere had been a triumph. Her father was coming to dinner tomorrow. For the first time in years, everything felt possible.

"Why do you look like you've swallowed glass?" she asked softly. "This is good news, Theo. It means—"

"It means you're leaving." His voice cracked on the word. He stepped back, running both hands through his hair. "Los Angeles. Eighteen months. We barely survived your schedule in Paris, and now you want to add an ocean between us?"

"I didn't say I'd accepted." Elise folded her arms. "I haven't even seen the full offer."

"But you will." He laughed, bitter and sharp. "That's what you do, Elise. You get what you want and you move forward. You don't look back."

"Is that what you think of me?"

"I think you're brilliant." He crossed to her again, catching her face in his hands with an intensity that made her breath hitch. "I think you're going to be the biggest star in the world, and I'm going to be here, filming a superhero franchise that means nothing to me, watching you become everything you were meant to be—from six thousand miles away."

"Then come with me." She heard herself say it before she'd consciously decided. "Your team can negotiate—"

"I can't." The words came out raw. "The sequel's contracted. Jason's already threatening to recast if I so much as suggest a scheduling conflict. And my mother—"

"Your mother is stable now. You said the treatment was working."

"She has good months and bad months, Elise. I can't leave her. Not now. Not for—" He stopped himself, but the words hung in the air anyway. *Not for you.*

The suite went very quiet.

"Not for me," Elise repeated, her voice flat. "I see."

"That's not what I meant." Theo dropped his hands. "I'm trying to say that I don't know how to hold onto you from across an ocean. I don't know how to do this—us—when every time I turn around, you're slipping further away."

"Then ask me to stay."

He stared at her.

"Not as a contract. Not as a negotiation." She lifted her chin. "Ask me because you can't imagine your life without me. Ask me because you want me here, in London, with you. Tell me we'll find a way."

"I can't ask you to give up *Cobalt Sky*."

"I'm not giving anything up." Her voice rose. "I'm asking you to meet me halfway. To trust that this is real enough to survive some distance."

Theo moved to the sideboard, poured himself a whiskey she knew he didn't want. His back was to her when he spoke.

"Marry me."

The words were so quiet she almost didn't hear them. When she didn't respond, he turned, and his face was open in a way she'd rarely seen—raw and terrified and desperate.

"Marry me, Elise. We'll tell the world we're engaged. It'll be the story of the year—the contract that became a love story. No one will question it. And you'll have a reason to stay. Not just for the role, but—"

"Theo." Her throat closed. "Stop."

He crossed to her, pulling something from his pocket—a small velvet box she hadn't noticed him holding earlier. He opened it to reveal a ring, elegant and modern, a diamond that caught the city lights. He'd clearly bought it weeks ago, maybe months. He'd been carrying it around.

"The timing was supposed to be perfect," he said. "After the premiere, after your father, after all the loose ends were tied. But nothing's ever perfect with us, is it? So I'm asking you now, badly, because I can't bear the thought of you boarding a plane without something that ties you to me."

Elise looked at the ring. Then at him. And felt something cold settle in her stomach.

"You're asking me to marry you," she said slowly, "so I won't take the job."

"I'm asking you to marry me because I love you."

"You're asking me to marry you because you're terrified." Her eyes burned. "Because you just realized I have a future that doesn't include you, and you can't handle the idea of being alone."

"That's not—"

"Is it?" She took a step back. "You don't trust that I'll come back. You don't trust that we can survive distance. So you're trying to trap me with a contract that's bigger than the last one. A contract I can't break."

"It's not a contract." His voice cracked. "It's a proposal."

"Tell me one thing." She stared at him, vision blurring. "If I take that ring, if I stay in London and turn down *Cobalt Sky*—will you ever wonder, for the rest of your life, whether I stayed because I loved you or because I had nowhere else to go?"

Theo opened his mouth. Closed it.

The silence was answer enough.

Elise took the ring box from his hands—gently, carefully—and closed the lid. She pressed it back into his palm.

"I love you, Theo." Her voice broke on the words. "But I will not be your insurance policy. And I will not be bought with fear."

She walked to the door, grabbed her coat.

"Where are you going?"

"To breathe." She looked back at him, this man she'd fallen for in the most complicated way possible. "We've done nothing but perform for six months. I need one moment that isn't an act."

The door clicked shut behind her.

In the hallway, Elise pressed her back against the wall and pressed her palms to her eyes, feeling the quiet echo of everything he hadn't said—and everything she hadn't dared to ask for.