He Chose Her Over Me So I Chose Myself Chapter 12
Eli started coming by more often.
At first, he still said he was picking something up for the library or dropping off a book. Later, he stopped bothering with reasons. He’d just bring two cups of hot tea and pastries from a local bakery, then sit under the skylight and read.
I cut glass. He turned pages.
Neither of us felt the need to fill the silence.
Little by little, that quiet became a part of the attic itself.
One afternoon, he brought over a small wooden board from his brother. The name *June* had been spelled out on it in crooked little pieces of colored glass.
“He said your name should be under the rainbow.”
I reached out to take it, and my fingers brushed his by accident.
It lasted only a moment.
But that night, I tossed and turned for a long time, unable to sleep.
Grant had never once asked why I loved glass. He only complained that the lead strips and shards on my workbench didn’t look respectable.
Eli, on the other hand, remembered every color and listened seriously when I explained the way light changed as it passed through them.
A few days later, he arrived carrying something wrapped in deep blue velvet.
When he pulled the cloth away, an old pane of glass was inside. The edges were uneven with age, but when sunlight passed through it, a full rainbow spilled across the wall.
“I found it at a flea market.” Eli looked at me. “The light it casts feels like your work.”
I opened my mouth, but in the end, I couldn’t bring myself to refuse. I reached out and took the glass.
And at that exact moment, I saw a familiar Bentley pull to a stop at the mouth of the alley.