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Gabriel looked at the bar and then me. “No. I don’t think I can.”

“No?” I asked.

“I need to be home for a bit.”

I stepped back, chest feeling like it had been hit. “We can’t even talk?”

He ran a hand through his messy hair and my mind immediately flashed to the closet.

“Not right this moment.” He sighed. “I’m not . . . I could easily get confused. If we go back to talking and try to pretend that never happened, we’ll just do it again.”

“Oh well.”

“We said it was one time.”

“Rules can be broken.”

“Jade, no. Just give me a few days. We both need a break.”

I scoffed. “We’ve never needed those before.”

“And look at how things ended before. Is that really something you wanna repeat?”

That shocked me into silence, and my brain finally caught up with all that had happened. We’d had sex. We’d gotten caught.

And he was leaving.

“Yeah.” My heart sank as I said it. “I get it.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “We’ll talk in a few days.”

All I could do was nod and watch him walk away.

If I’d had more sense earlier, I’d have never done this.

But I’d never been praised for my great decision-making. Now all I could do was get my head on straight.

Then I could figure out everything else that had fallen apart today.

34

GABRIEL

Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch

Mark Bell: How does one store passwords?

Comments:

Atticus Thompson: I usually use my brain.

Kerry Winsor: Why are you asking? Did someone get into your closet again?

Mark Bell: Yes. I can’t share details, but just know my BBC was VIOLATED!

Mark Bell: Any real advice?

Atticus Thompson: Is memorization not real?