She stepped down out of her car and slowly closed the door behind her. Instinctually, she scanned the area, waiting for a feeling that something might be off or a hint of danger. Sensing nothing amiss, she pulled her phone from her pocket to confirm the details of the meeting.

7 pm on the top level of this parking deck, followed by some coordinates.

Everything was right, but there was no sign of him. Until…

"Liv," he said as he appeared almost out of nowhere. He walked with a familiar gait towards her but left a few feet between them. She was thankful for the space. Truth be told, she didn't want to be anywhere near him, but he called, and she came. She always did. She hated that.

"Thanks for coming. I… I just needed to talk to you."

She shoved her phone in her coat pocket and gestured for him to continue. She felt a fury coursing deep within her bones. She refused to give him the satisfaction of her own curiosity. She refused to give him more than the bare minimum.

"I want to talk about the other night. I want to apologize for coming to you like that. I shouldn't have," he said, looking down at his dusty shoes.

"Well, you were on drugs. It's done now." She let out a breath and stared at him, wondering if he'd summoned her here just for an apology she didn't particularly care to hear. Showing up to her house in a stupor was very near the bottom of her list of grievances, especially after the conversation they'd had.

"I didn't mean to upset you. I wasn't in my right mind."

She scoffed and put on the wryest smile she could manage. "Well, Elliot, like I said. It's done. I'm fine."

"Come on, Liv," he said, reaching out for her. But she stepped back.

"Don't," she said, warning him not to come any closer. He let his arm fall back to his side, his brow furrowed in confusion and hurt. "Don't you dare ask anything from me right now."

"I'm not asking anything from you," he said, taking a small step towards her.

"Like hell you aren't." She pointed a finger at him, another warning not to invade her space. "You're always asking something from me, Elliot."

"Liv, I swear," he said, making her even angrier.

"You showed up here, invaded my life, and asked me to swallow ten years of pain because you were broken. Then you handed me that damned letter." She ran her hand through her hair and turned briefly on her heels to take a breath. "You told me we were nothing, that I kept you from being who you were supposed to be. And you expected me to go on like nothing happened. That's asking a whole hell of a lot."

"Like I told you, I didn't write that. I didn't think that," he said pleadingly.

"Who cares, Elliot. You wrote it down. You handed it to me and told me it would explain things." She was losing her composure now, but what the hell. It had to come out at some point. Now was as good a time as any.

"I shouldn't have… I didn't mean any of it. I was grieving and I thought..." he tried to continue, but she cut him off.

"You didn't mean any of it?" she asked with one particular line in mind.

"Except for the last part," he said, his soft blue eyes not leaving hers for a moment. "I meant that. I wanted you to know that you meant something to me."

She could feel the rage she'd been burying for so long bubble up slowly. Her hands were shaking ever so slightly and she felt like she had to work a little harder to keep her knees straight. She wanted to hurt him, and she knew all it would take was the truth.

"Well guess what," she spat out, "I don't care about a parallel universe where it's you and I. I care about this universe… where you left me without a word. The universe where I needed you, where I prayed that you would care enough to save me, where I had to live through hell knowing you didn't care." The last phrase came out barely above a whisper, and she could feel the lump in her throat growing, threatening to release a fountain of tears.

"Liv, what are you… what do you mean?" he asked, looking concerned.

Shit. She'd said too much. She couldn't talk about that right now. Maybe not ever, but certainly not right now. She didn't have the energy. She couldn't trust him with that.

"I can't. I can't do this. I can't talk about this," she said, reaching in her pocket for her keys as she walked backwards to her car.

"Talk about what? Liv, please," he begged, walking after her.

She paused briefly before opening the door. "You and your parallel universe can go to hell," she said, her voice breaking the whole way through. He started to protest, but she slammed the door in his face and started the engine. She took one breath to steady herself before driving away and leaving him in the rearview mirror.