By the time Jake's Monday came around, Heather had distanced herself from him without even trying.
She hid in her office most of the day, only really leaving to get something or head to her studio and lucky for her, Jake was on air up until she was.
Those few days had given her a lot of perspective and her mother's words were in her head for the entire week.
Maybe it was selfish wanting to tell Jake she loved him but she wouldn't know if he loved her or not if she didn't try.
On the drive to Jake's apartment to drop Juliet off for the week, Heather's heart was racing. She was going to do it. She was going to come clean to Jake and tell him she loved him.
It didn't matter to her what the outcome was. She wanted to be with him, sure, but she wanted him to know and she didn't want to keep it inside anymore.
She blocked out the walk from her car to his door, knocking on it while Juliet told her about some new doll she wanted to get. Heather was fairly sure she agreed to buy it anyway. She couldn't remember.
"Hey little bug!" Jake smiled, swinging the door open and lifting his daughter into his arms and peppering her face with kisses, "hey, how are you?"
Heather snapped out of her trance, smiling at Jake and deciding she needed to ask him if they could talk before she changed her mind.
"I'm good, have you got a second?" Heather swallowed thickly as she smiled at him softly, "I need to talk to you,"
Jake nodded, stepping aside and opening the door a little wider, this was the longest they had spoken to each other since that lunch with his parents over two weeks ago. "Of course yeah, come in,"
Jake sent Juliet to her room, promising her they'd play with whatever she wanted when Heather was gone. Juliet hugged and kissed her mother before skipping down the hallway to her bedroom.
Lucia swooped into the room at that exact moment Heather and Jake settled on the couch, almost as if she could tell that Heather was going to say something.
She hugged and kissed Jake, the smile on his face wide as he hugged her back before she smiled at Heather, greeting her and then moved to the kitchen.
She couldn't do this. He looked so happy she didn't want to disrupt that. Suddenly, any of her plans to tell him were gone.
"What did you want to talk about?" Jake asked, Heather's heart beating rapidly in her chest and panic starting to rise within her.
She looked at him, trying her best to stay composed but she wanted to cry. She wanted to scream.
"Oh, just Uhm," Heather didn't know what to say. She swallowed thickly, the words still on the tip of her tongue, "I'm just so happy for you,"
Jake looked at her strangely, almost as if he didn't believe her. Please ask me to be honest, Heather pleaded in her mind, knowing Jake would find some way to get it out of he pressed it enough.
But that push never came, he just slowly nodded his head, not really knowing what to say to her as she sat there. She was panicked, hands wringing together and her entire body felt like it was about to burn up.
Please ask me, please please ask me.
It was futile. He wasn't going to ask. He was going to take her at her word and move on. She could see from the look on his face.
"I have to go, I told my mom I'd meet her before work," Heather said quickly, knowing her mother would be the one person she could talk to about this, "Could you uh, thank Lucia for everything? And, really. I'm happy for you,"
