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“Why?!”
“Because you’re pulling away from us!”
Laney seals her mouth together. Her eyes glimmer in mine for a moment, before she turns to face the front of the elevator, looking straight ahead as if she’s witnessing a coronation or something very dower. “I didn’t realize there was anything to pull away from.”
The door swishes open. Damn this expedient elevator.
Laney bolts out, but I anticipate it this time, and I’m barely a step behind her. “Why are you acting like nothing happened at the cabin?”
Laney ducks her head, pushing her hands into her pockets, and ignores the doorman who is the friendliest man in the world and doesn’t deserve to be snubbed like that.
I give the doorman, Paulie, a nod before following her through the revolving doors.
Once we’re outside, I’m able to walk right next to her.
She might be quick, but my legs are longer, so it’s impossible for her to get too far ahead of me.
“Laney!”
“What am I supposed to act like, Mason? That what happened up there was normal? That we can all live our weird orgy fantasies and–”
I wince. “It wasn’t weird, and it wasn’t an orgy. It was–”
“Oh, my god, do not start nit-picking with me and arguing about the word choice, you know what I mean.”
I remain resolute. “No, I don’t.”
Laney stops and faces me. Doesn’t care that we’re in the middle of the sidewalk and the upper east side elite are having to skirt around us. “Mason. What we didisn’t normal.”
“So?”
“So. It’s done. It’s over.”
I shake my head. “You’re lying to yourself, Laney.”
Her head rocks back. “Excuse me?”
“Tell me you’re not. I dare you.”
“I–” Laney cuts herself off, then huffs. “I hate you.”
I have to smile at that. “No, you don’t.”
She looks up at me, sheepish, her blue eyes unsure. “Mason…”
“I came to talk to you because…” Because of so many things. Things that feel too big to lay on the line just with words, but there’s no other way. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Laney takes a tentative step away.
“No, hear me out. Don’t make any decisions, don’t…just listen.”
I reach out and touch her arm.
She doesn’t pull away. Her bicep is warm in my hand.
I want to glue myself to her, never let her go.
Because Laney is flighty, and she questions everything, Laney is afraid. Like a baby bird that’s fallen out of the nest, refusing human help.
