We sit in silence for a while. I hesitantly lean toward her, and a heavy weight lifts off of my chest when she settles against me. The tension isn’t gone, but at least it has softened enough for her to not kick me out of her apartment yet.
Then something tugs at me, and my hands instinctively tighten around her. “Uh… by the way,” I ask, brow furrowing. “Who told you about Iris?”
She stiffens slightly, then quirks a brow a little too calmly for my comfort. “Taewon.”
I rear back in shock. “That smug bastard.”
That earns me a soft snort, the kind I hadn’t realized I’d missed until just now. Then she chuckles softly too, and I know I’ve missed that sound too. Missedher.
Christ. It’s been three fucking weeks of my stupidity leading to this.
“What exactly did he tell you?” I ask, pulling her in a little closer, my lips ghosting her temple.
She shrugs and fucking finally lets me shift her onto my lap. “Just that the Miller-Moore consultant is your Stanford girlfriend of two years,” she says casually.
“One and a half—” I correct her, and instantly wince under her blanking eyes.
She sighs, visibly struggling to ignore my idiocy. “Anyway, I sort of connected the dots from there.”
I groan, tipping my head back. “Fuck. Sorry. I should’ve just told you. I don’t know why I didn’t.”
She nods against my chest. But the shaky, ragged sighs pulling from her chest sound so damn weary that I feel like an utter moron for letting this slip.
After a few seconds of strained silence she speaks again, softly. “I think it was the timeline that messed me up, you know? Three weeks since her return. And three weeks since you…”
“Distanced myself?” I finish for her, echoing what she said earlier.
She nods. “That and…”
The second she hesitates, my pulse races. “And…?”
Her eyes lift to mine. There’s a sad smile there. “Tell me you love me.”
I frown. I don’t understand where that’s coming from. Not yet. “Cece, of course I lo—”
“That’s what you asked last night,” she says, her voice soft but unsteady.
I freeze, confused—until it lands, and all air leaves my lungs at what she just made me realize. I swallow hard. Guilt already forming.
She bites her lower lip. And suddenly, all the little cracks from earlier start forming a line. A timeline. Her hurt begins to make a lot more sense.
“And then you—”
“I never said it back,” I cut in, gutted.
??????
I sigh, unprepared for the shitshow that’s about to happen. My parents had the Wentworths invite theMiller-Moore representatives to the party as well.
But my mistake from that night is still humming through my nerves. I hadn’t said it back. Why? Was Ithatfocused on my pride to have her say it first?
I want to cuss myself for not noticing her reticence sooner. For letting her be the only one brave enough to bring it up. For not realizing the error on my own instead of her opening my eyes.
Instead of digging deeper and asking her why she hesitates, I let myself use the excuse of my parents—the damnclause—for the distance. And then Iris coming back became another dot for her to connect.
I need to find out what’s happening with the inner workings of Astor Holdings, before I fuck things up for good.
NINE
