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I pause, hesitant, but I reach out and take it from him, careful not to let our fingers touch.
“The passcode to unlock it is 0107.”
Immediately, I know those are the numbers of my birthday, the seventh of January, but I don’t say it out loud. I’m too engrossed in whatever’s about to happen. I can feel the weight of it, thick between us. I punch in the digits and the screen lights up.
“Go into my text messages,” Jace instructs. “Scroll all the way to the bottom. You’ll see your name there.”
Why the hell would my name be there? That’s my first thought. The second is that he was obviously sick and twisted enough to keep the damn message he sent me. A new wave of molten fury floods my insides, but I do as he says, scrolling to the bottom of the text messaging screen. Sure enough, my name is at the very bottom—the oldest messaging conversation in the list. I click it, and it’s on the tip of my tongue to snap at him, asking him why the hell he’s doing this, bringing all this hurt and pain back to the surface.
Then, I realize something. The last message in the conversation isn’t the one I think it is. I know I never responded to Jace’s last text message to me, the cruel one that ended everything between us.
Except, that’s not the last message he sent me.
The message that’s haunted me for three goddamn years is there, and it hurts just as much as the first time I read those words on my own phone screen. You deserve better than the life I can give you, Izzy…
But another message shows up after it. And I plan on building you the one you deserve. Please wait for me. I love you.
According to the time stamp on it, it was sent the same day as the previous one. I can’t breathe as I press my thumb against the screen and hold it there in order to view the message details. All the air is gone from my lungs, and my throat has constricted so tightly I’m afraid I might suffocate from my own sense of disbelief.
Both messages were sent within a minute of each other.
But I never received the second one.
My head snaps up, and I gaze at Jace with widened eyes as the realization begins to sink in. “You...didn’t break up with me.”
“And you didn’t wait for me.” There’s no malice in his tone, only resignation as he offers me a sad smile.
The pain behind it breaks my heart, when I thought it couldn’t be shattered any more. “I didn’t get this message,” I explain feebly, holding the phone out as though it’s proof.
“I realized that this morning,” Jace states. “Far too late, obviously. All this time, I thought you broke up with me. Decided waiting for me wasn’t what you wanted. Yet, the entire time, you—”
“Thought you broke up with me,” I finish for him. “Over a fucking text message.” I sound defeated, and that’s exactly how I feel.
“I never would have done that to you, Izzy.” Jace takes a step forward, his eyes firmly set on me. “And if I had ever been stupid enough to break up with you, I’d never have done it over a text message.”
My mind is whirling with so many thoughts, so many questions, I’m not sure which to ask first. “All this time,” I breathe out. “Lost. Purely because I—”
“Turned your phone off and changed the number the next day.” Jace smiles again. “Emily told me she was with you when you got the first text. I know how much it hurt you to think I...did that.”
There’s pain in his voice, and I feel guilt slice through me, knowing my actions are the cause of it. “Emily told you everything, then.” It’s not a question. I can see the truth on his face. His jaw is tight, and his eyes are shadowed. He knows.
Jace just nods. “She told me you...retaliated. With Chad.”
The blood drains from my face. Seeing him look so pained, and sound so lost—it’s killing me. “It was a stupid, drunken night about a week after I got your message,” I explain. “One drunken night that somehow led to eight months of pretending to be more than we were.”
“You ended up dating him.” Jace shrugs, his hands still in his pockets. “There’s no shame or blame in that, Izzy. You thought we were over. Hell, I dated the PBR’s public relations advisor for a while, too, but…”
Jace trails off, and it’s my turn to chuckle sadly. ?
?But it’s like wine after whisky.”
A crooked grin forms on his mouth. “Exactly like wine after whisky.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat, holding his phone out to him. “Jace, I swear—”
He reaches out for the phone, bypassing it completely and grabbing onto my wrist, tugging me against him. His mouth finds mine without consciously having to seek it out. The connection between us, the tangible pull; we’d be able to find each other in absolute darkness. The warmth of his tongue against mine sends a shiver of hunger straight to my core, and I kiss him back with just as much intensity and promise as he offers me.
“I thought the distance and the time away from here had become too much for you to handle,” he whispers when he pulls away, his forehead pressed against mine as his fingers cup the side of my face. “I’ve always ended every conversation with the truest words I know, Izzy—I love you. Remember?”
