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“Does he know you’re here?” he accuses, the bite of his tone cutting through the still air.
I swallow. “He knows I’m catching up with a friend.”
Snatching his own boots up, he shakes his head. “Friend.Un-fucking-believable,” he mumbles to himself.
He steps backward, forcing distance between us.
“Why didn’t you tell him you were meeting me?”
My body is shaking, visible tremors wracking through my entire being. My head feels ready to explode. “I . . . I don’t know.”
“Say again?”
“I don’t know!” I yell despairingly.
“Do you love him?” he questions, and I hate the way my throat closes in panic.
“That’s not fair.” I turn away, moving a few steps to the closest seat, sitting down to pull my socks on. “You can’t ask me that.”
“Why?” he pushes, moving up beside me to mirror my actions.
“We haven’t been together long enough,” I argue weakly, shoving my foot into my boot messily. “We haven’t told one another that. How could I confess that to someone else first?”
“That’s not what I’m asking, Henley.” He squeezes my shoulder, and I look up at him. “I’m asking if youfeelas strongly for him as you do for me.”
I close my eyes, working to ignore the way he consumes me. I need him to stop touching me. The weight of his hand blurs my moral compass, confusing me further.
“Brooks.” I sigh.
“Don’t bullshit me.” He grabs both my shoulders, physically turning me to face him and keeping hold to stop me from moving away.
Brushing my hand down the line of his jacket, I gnaw at my bottom lip. “You and I were best friends,” I tell him. “And then we weren’t. I don’t know what we are anymore. I don’t know what I feel.”
It’s a half-truth, but the only one I’m certain of.
I can’t tell him that he’s consumed every thought from the moment I saw him last night. That I couldn’t stomach the idea of touching Aaron or having Aaron touchmewhen my mind was consumed by him.
“Not true,” he combats confidently. “We’ve always been best friends. We just stepped into somethingmore.”
“You and I have history.” I need him to listen. I need him to understand that I’m confused. “Of course, there are feelings there. But look at us.”
He stares at me blankly.
I gesture around us. To no one. To everyone. “Look at how we discard others so easily when we’re around one another. It’s not healthy.”
“Are you blind?” He drops his hands away from my shoulders, pushing his feet into his boots. “We discard others because there’s something important between us.”
I nod, not willing to deny that certainty. “Maybe. But I also have feelings for Aaron, which means I can’t be certain of what I really feel. Maybe you’re my safe choice.”
I regret the words as soon as I’ve said them. He stands up in shock before I can take them back, and I feel cold.
I stand too, stepping toward him.
“Safe choice? What the fuck?”
“I’m used to you protecting me, Brooks,” I backtrack. “What if that’s what I’m hanging onto?”
He moves away from me again, rubbing his forehead in frustration. “You think you only want me because I’m what, like the dad you never had?”
