The Last Wager

He reaches in his pocket, takes out a fifty-cent coin and holds it between his fingertips.
Heads, I stay; and be everything you want me to be, hide my feelings from you, stay your buddy, pine away for a lifetime. Heads, I die a day at a time, for you.
Tails, I turn around and walk away; I run from this ridiculous urge to tell you how much I love you, and attempt to ruin your life and your relationship, with Him. Tails, and I die in an instant, for myself.
He isn't, of course, about to tell her that he can skew the coin flip, and that he's planning to skew it so that it comes up tails. He isn't going to tell her, ever, that he had to do it, because he thought it would make her happier.
(A minute ago, they were laughing as only old friends can do, when he told her he had something important to say. He saw her sense the change in mood, saw the slight crease form in her eyebrows as she waited. He struggled for a bit, then said, I'm so sorry I'm doing this. Okay, let's do it this way, and reached into his pocket.)
That's how it has to be then, just as he's planned it; a skewed coinflip to oblivion.
So he looks up from the coin and meets her eyes, opens his mouth to tell her "Heads, I stay, Tails, I go". But before he can even begin, she, never breaking eye contact, takes his hand in both of hers, the hand with the coin, and says, "Don't".
He sits back, stunned, and doesn't voice the question that's begging to be asked : How did you know what I was going to do?
And so instead, he begins Once upon a time...