She and Rachel had a fight.

It was obvious that she'd been crying, which scared the hell out of me. What could be so bad that it would make Talia cry? I grabbed us some quick food and we went up to my room to eat and talk it out.

"Rachel and I had a fight," Talia said with a bite of burger in her mouth. "She wants to go to Oxford for graduate school. I mean, she already...she already paid her deposit. She applied without even telling me."

"Woah. That's not like her."

"She wanted it to be a surprise, I guess, but like...what kind of a surprise is that? 'Surprise! You have to choose between me and your fucking home!' I mean, I'm spontaneous and whatever, but...I'm not going to get up and move five thousand miles just like that."

"You had a fight about it?"

"Huge. We said some ugly stuff. Things were thrown. She stormed out and drove off. I'm not sure what I should do." Talia looked more downcast than I'd ever seen her. "I mean, is this it? Am I ever going to see her again?"

The thought brought more tears, and I held her for a while, petting her head while she sobbed. After a moment, she recovered a little. "What should I do?"

I knew what I wanted to say. Stay with me, let's get married and have a mess of kids! Instead, I acted on my better impulses. "Let's be logical about this. What are your options?"

Talia paused a moment. "I could go after her. Apologize on my knees. I could buy a plane ticket, damn the consequences, and go live with her in England. Make it work, somehow. Give up everything else. My family, my friends, you..."

The inclusion of my name cause my heart to skip a beat. What she said next nearly killed me.

"I've known since prom that you had feelings for me. Why else would you have decided to switch to Stanford last minute? I like you a lot. I wanted to keep seeing you. So I didn't say anything about it. I'm...sorry for leading you on, if that's why you came out here. Really sorry. You're the most important man in my life, and..."

On impulse, I reached over and gave her a tight hug. I wanted to feel her close to me at that moment, as if she'd made some confession of love. "Don't be sorry. I was a little selfish to come out here, but I didn't want to lose you. You're the most important woman in my life, and I couldn't let you go. It was selfish."

I pulled back, and read the warmth in her eyes. "I don't know what to do. I love you, Ian. But I love Rachel, too, and I can't be in two places. Life with Rachel...it's always exciting, fresh, and new. But sometimes...I want something else. Something a little more stable. What should I do?"

I hadn't heard a word past "I love you, Ian," and I was grinning like an idiot while Talia was experiencing the crisis of her life.

This moment would change the outcome of both our lives. I could urge her to follow Rachel, chase her first love. Or, I could confess everything that I'd been feeling, and hope that's enough to make her stay.