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Her text made me smile, and also reassured me a little.
Dean: I’d love that!
Dean: I hate to ask, but how are you feeling after seeing Jack?
Cassie: :( Walking away from him was really hard, but it was the right thing to do.
Dean: Feel better! You know I love ya, sis. Chat soon.
After my morning classes, I texted Melissa to see if she still wanted to hang for lunch or not. Since it was just the two of us now, I wasn’t entirely sure what we were supposed to do—carry on like nothing happened, as if the two people who were our glue weren’t gone?
She responded that she did, called me a dummy, and I met her in our usual spot, elated.
“And then there were two,” she said as I sat down across from her.
“Maybe it’s us? Maybe we make people leave,” I said, biting back a smile.
“Maybe it’s you. People like me just fine.” She gave me a big grin, and I wanted to disagree just to be argumentative, but resisted the temptation.
Instead I said, “I texted with Cassie this morning.”
“Me too.” She sighed. “My apartment is quiet, boring, and lonely with her gone.”
My insides tightened. “I’ll come over anytime you want. All you have to do is ask,” I offered, hoping like hell she’d take me up on it.
“It’s not the same,” she said without meeting my gaze, and the blows to my ego continued.
“I know I’m not Cassie, but shit, aren’t I better than nothing?” I asked, wanting even a crumb from this girl.
She frowned at me. “I don’t want a boyfriend, Dean.”
Well, that came out of freaking nowhere.
“I wasn’t asking to be your boyfriend,” I spat back, annoyed. “Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? I just said I could come over if you were lonely and wanted company.”
She shrugged. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea about us.”
Although she’d said the words, I had a hard time believing them. Maybe it was the way she wouldn’t look me in the eye when she said them.
Still annoyed, I told her, “I don’t think there is an us, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”
Jack’s advice came back to me, and I remembered him telling me to ask someone else out. I wasn’t sure that I could do that when I wasn’t really interested, but I figured I might be able to fake liking someone who wasn’t Melissa just to see what she’d do. It was a stupid game, but I was willing to play it if it meant that she would have to admit to feeling something for me.
“Do you even like me? Because I think you do. I think there’s something here between us,” I said, laying my cards on the table.
“Of course I like you,” she said with a dismissive snort, and I groaned in frustration.
“Then why do you keep pushing me away?”
“Because I can’t do this with you, Dean. We’re not a good idea.”
“What? Not a good idea? We’re the best idea there is.”
She shook her head hard, as if trying to convince herself of something only she could understand. “No. Not after everything that Jack and Cassie have been through. I mean, we can’t be together when they’re not!”
“Melissa.” I shook my head, trying to make sense of her nonsense. “I was interested in you before there even was a Jack and Cassie. So that’s not fair.”
She sucked in a small breath and whispered, “I liked you back then too. We just took too long, and they got together first.”
