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Neverbeautiful.
Brooks is different. He’sdeeper.He’s not just telling me that he likes the way I look. He’s telling me he likes the shine of my soul and the way my eyes speak to him.
It consumes me. More often than not, I despise myself. I hate my flaws. They’re defects I wouldn’t accept on another, yet they’re fundamentals of who I am.
Brooks thinks I’m beautiful despite those blemishes on my soul, undeterred by the failings in my person.
“More people should tell you that.” He turns away, toeing off his boots in the freezing temperature to feel the piercing cold grass against his feet.
His eyes tighten in discomfort, lips thinning out at the sharp pain. I watch him in amusement.
“But I’m glad they haven’t,” he continues. “Does that make me an asshole?” He glances at me over his shoulder, his eyes dropping to my feet in expectation.
“It’s thirty-nine out,” I groan. “My feet will freeze.”
His eyes narrow. “Who are you, and what have you done withmyHenley?”
My Henley.
“She’s here,” I tell him. “She’s just interested in keeping all of her toes.”
Letting his camera hang from his neck loosely, he tucks his hands under his armpits. Clucking slowly, he moves closer.
“Stop it.” I cross my arms.
His clucking gets faster. And louder, gathering the attention of passersby.
“You’re acting like a child.”
He moves around me, a soft cluck ticking the line of my ear as he steps uncomfortably close.
I step forward. “Brooks.”
I whirl around.
He raises an eyebrow, letting his arms fall to his side only to lift them again, stretching them outward. “Where’s my gypsy? The girl who was going to travel the world and feel the earth between her toes.”
My teeth massage the inside of my cheek before I sigh in defeat.
Bending at the waist, I work the laces of my boots silently. Shoe and sock removed, I drop my foot to the grass. “Holy fucking shit.”
“Cold, hey?”
“Words like arctic or polar would be more apt,” I breathe out slowly, my foot going numb.
He laughs at me, lifting his camera to take a photo of his bare feet.
I remove my other boot, stuffing my sock inside the leather. Eyes shut tight, I drop it to the grass, inhaling sharply at the pinch of pain caused by the cold.
I breathe in purposely through my nose, exhaling forcefully through my mouth.
Click.
I open an eye.
Click.
“You’re an asshole.”
