Chapter 29 : The Choice
Jitters looked different in the evening light.
The same tables, the same counter, the same art on the walls. But the atmosphere had shifted—quieter now, the afternoon rush faded, a different crowd occupying the space. Couples on evening dates. People finishing work, nursing lattes while checking emails. A few solitary figures reading or working on laptops.
Our table sat empty when I arrived. The one by the window, where we'd had our first real conversation. Where she'd laughed at my hospital coffee joke. Where everything had started.
I sat down and waited.
Caitlin arrived eight minutes later. She looked exhausted—dark circles that matched my own, hair pulled back in a functional ponytail rather than her usual careful styling. The past two weeks had been hard on both of us.
"Hey." She slid into the chair across from me.
"Hey."
The silence stretched between us. Neither of us reached for a menu. Neither ordered drinks. The rituals that had once felt natural now felt impossible.
"Thank you for coming," she said finally.
"You asked."
"I know. I just... I wasn't sure you would."
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Because I've been terrible." Her voice cracked slightly. "Ignoring you for two weeks while I figured things out. Making you wait while I decided if I wanted to be with you or with..." She couldn't finish the sentence.
"Ronnie," I said. The name tasted bitter but necessary.
"Ronnie." She nodded. "I thought he was dead for two years, Harry. I mourned him. I built a life around his absence. And then suddenly he's back, and everything I thought I knew about my future..."
"Changed."
"Changed completely." She took a breath. "But that's not fair to you. You didn't sign up for this. You started something with me thinking I was available, thinking I was ready. And I was. I thought I was."
I waited. Whatever she needed to say, I would let her say it.
"I love you." The words came out raw, unguarded. "I really do. The past few months with you have been the happiest I've felt since before the accelerator. You made me believe I could have something good again."
"But."
"But Ronnie and I never got closure." Tears gathered in her eyes. "We were supposed to get married. We had plans—a house, a family, a whole life mapped out together. And then he died, and none of that happened. Except now he didn't die. He's alive, and he's still the man I was going to marry, and I..."
She trailed off, searching for words that wouldn't come easily.
"You owe it to yourself to try," I said.
Her eyes met mine. "You understand?"
"I understand that you loved him first. That you never stopped loving him. That what we had—what we have—started after you'd already given your heart to someone else." The words hurt to say, but they were true. "I was always the after, Caitlin. The person you let yourself care about because Ronnie was gone."
"That's not—"
"It is." I kept my voice gentle despite the pain. "And that's okay. I knew what I was getting into. You were honest about your history. About how much you'd lost. I chose to pursue something anyway, knowing there was a part of you I'd never reach."
"Harry..."
"Let me finish." I reached across the table, took her hand. "You need to explore what you and Ronnie still have. See if the love that existed before the accelerator can survive everything that's happened since. That's not a betrayal of what we had. It's just... life being complicated."
The tears were flowing freely now. She gripped my hand like a lifeline.
"I didn't want to hurt you."
"I know."
"I don't want to lose you completely."
"You won't." I squeezed her fingers gently, then let go. "But we can't be what we were. Not while you're with him. That's not fair to anyone."
She nodded, wiping her eyes with the napkin from the table. "Can we still be friends? Eventually?"
"Eventually." The word felt like a promise and a wound simultaneously. "Not right away. I need... time. Space. But eventually, yes. I'd like that."
"Thank you." She stood, gathering herself with visible effort. "Thank you for being so... decent about this."
"Decent." I managed a small smile. "Not sure that's the word I'd use."
"It's the word I'm using." She leaned down, kissed my forehead—a gesture of farewell rather than affection. "You're a good man, Harry Griffin. Don't let this make you think otherwise."
She walked away.
I watched her go until she disappeared through the door, out into the evening street, out of my life in the way that mattered most.
The coffee I'd never ordered sat unordered. The table felt empty. Everything felt empty.
I paid for nothing because I'd bought nothing, and left Jitters for what I suspected would be the last time.
The rain started as I reached the sidewalk.
Light at first—a gentle drizzle that misted against my skin. Then heavier, building into a proper downpour that sent other pedestrians scrambling for cover under awnings and into doorways.
I kept walking.
The water soaked through my jacket, my shirt, plastered my hair against my skull. Cold rivulets ran down my face, mixing with other moisture I didn't want to acknowledge.
She made her choice. You told her to take her time. You got exactly what you said you wanted.
The rational assessment didn't help. Nothing helped.
I walked for an hour without destination. Past the precinct where Joe West worked. Past the building where my apartment waited, empty and quiet. Past STAR Labs, where Ronnie was probably waking up beside Caitlin right now, reclaiming the life he'd lost.
Eventually, I ended up at the docks.
The same industrial district where I'd first stalked Tank. Where I'd begun the transformation from confused transmigrator to whatever I was becoming. The rain fell harder here, drumming against shipping containers and rusted equipment.
[EMOTIONAL DISTRESS DETECTED] [PP PENALTY: -30] [RECOMMEND: STABILIZATION ACTIVITY]
The system's clinical assessment cut through the fog of feeling. Even now, it tracked metrics, calculated losses, suggested optimizations.
It doesn't care that I'm in pain. It only cares that pain is inefficient.
But there was something almost comforting in the cold logic. Emotions were unreliable. Love ended. Relationships failed. People chose resurrected fiancés over men they'd known for three months.
Power didn't abandon you. Power didn't choose someone else. Power stayed because you'd earned it, taken it, made it part of yourself.
I pulled up the system interface.
[FUSION FEATURE AVAILABLE] [COMPATIBLE POWERS DETECTED] [CONSIDER: STRENGTH + PAIN RESISTANCE → PHYSICAL ENHANCEMENT TIER 2]
Fusion. Combining powers into something greater. A distraction from heartbreak that might actually be productive.
Sure, I thought. Why not. If I can't feel love, maybe I can feel powerful instead.
The rain continued to fall as I walked home to prepare.
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