"We can't."

The mental loops we go through.

It's not cheating, is it?

It...

It's not.

He isn't cheating.

He kissed her deeply at her response.

"Wait." She said, putting her hands on his chest. She took a deep breath. "We can't."

He put his forehead onto hers. He didn't respond.

"You know it, Tyler. We can't. We can't. This really was far enough."

After a couple of tense seconds, he finally responded. "I know."

She bit her lip. "You don't know how hard that is to say. But we can't."

"We can't."

She put her hands on either side of his head. "Look, Tyler...I like you. A lot. We shouldn't...I shouldn't...we can't...I can't...it's not right. We can't throw away our boyfriends and girlfriends like that. I love Tom so, so much. Don't you love Kaitlyn?"

"So badly."

"And, so...no matter how hard it is to say it right now with you right here, with me so, so ready to give it up...we can't."

He got off of her, his heart rate slowing down. "We need to stop, now. Get clothed."

And so they did. Tyler put on his underwear and his pants, as well as his shirt, and Zoey put on her pants and sweatshirt. She tucked her broken underwear into her pants pocket. She tied her hair back up.

They slept on opposite sides of the couch that night. In the morning, she was gone.