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When I finally pull back, his lipstick is smeared. Mine probably is too.

Jamie is breathing harder than he was before.

I touch my thumb to his mouth and give him one last slow stroke under the skirt. “You ruined my makeup.”

He stares at me. “You kissed me.”

“And you ruined it.”

“You’re fucking insane.”

I wipe the smear from his bottom lip and check my thumb for color. “Do it again.”

Jamie kisses me.

I give him the beginning, then tighten my hand in his hair and take back the rest.

CHAPTER 10

Jamie

Heather puts a plate in front of me, then a glass of water. The pill comes last.

She sets it beside my fork and sits across from me with her coffee.

Yesterday she told me there are bodies in the backyard. Yesterday I kissed her.

I pick up the pill and swallow it.

Heather looks over the rim of her coffee. “Good boy.” Then she reaches for her toast.

That’s it? Today I take the fucking thing myself, and apparently that earns me two words and half a glance.

She didn’t even hold my eyes while she said it.

I pick up my fork and cut into my eggs harder than necessary.

Heather doesn’t notice. Or she does and doesn’t care, which is probably more likely.

Her makeup is different today.

Yesterday I spent twenty minutes close enough to count her eyelashes. I picked the green around her eyes because it made them look brighter, darkened the edges, changed the shape slightly. I used a lipstick she doubted until she saw it on. Now she’s wearing brown around her eyes and something lighter on her mouth.

“You took it off.”

Heather looks up from her toast. “What?”

“The makeup.”

“I washed my face.”

“I know how washing your face works.”

She takes another bite.

I hate that she can make me feel ridiculous without even trying.

“You didn’t like it?”