"I did."
"No. You trusted that I'd always be there. That is different."
She didn't argue.
We sat for a while. I could hear traffic on 270, a truck backing up somewhere behind the storage units.
Finally, Sabrina said, "I hate feeling trapped."
"I wasn't trapping you."
"I know. But the idea of being locked into one future... it terrifies me. I always need to know other doors still exist."
"Even if keeping them open meant lying to everyone?"
She didn't answer right away. Then, quietly, "I didn't think you would actually leave."
"I know."
"I thought if things didn't work out with Tyler, or if I couldn't figure out the housing thing, I could just come back, and you would still be there."
"I would have been," I said. "That is the part you didn't understand. If you had just been honest, I would have worked with you. We could have figured it out."
She looked down. "I wasn't planning to end things with you. Not immediately."
"Then what were you planning?"
Long pause.
"I wanted to see if something better existed."
"With the assumption that you would still be there if it didn't."
There it was. I said it out loud, because she wouldn't.
"You didn't keep options open, Sabrina. You kept people on layaway."
She flinched, but she didn't deny it.
We sat there for another minute. Then she stood up.
"I should go."
"Yeah."
She walked to her car, hand on the door handle. Then she turned back.
"For what it is worth, I am sorry. I know it doesn't change anything, but I am."
"I believe you," I said.
She got in her car and started the engine. I watched her pull out of the lot and take 270 south.
Gone.
I sat there for a few more minutes. Then I drove home.
The consequences didn't blow up like a movie. They just accumulated.
Rachel let Sabrina stay with her for a few weeks, but the relationship between them isn't the same. Rachel told me she cannot forget the credit inquiry or the lies.
Tyler disappeared from the situation completely. Blocked her number, moved on.
The mortgage plan fell apart. No co-signer, no documented stable housing, no approval.