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“Are you kidding me right now?” Her laugh was bitter. “I don’t owe you anything. You don’t own me, Dragan. I have absolutely fuck-all to tell you about my private life. If that was such a concern for you, maybe you should’ve brought up exclusivity.”
“Oh, you want to play that game?”
“What game, Dragan?” She was yelling
He couldn’t believe it had devolved to this. “If you don’t owe me anything, I don’t owe you anything.”
“Oh my god. They are two separate things. Why didn’t you tell me you sold the app, Dragan? Why did you take me on that date, like you were saying good-bye to your hometown? Why did you book and pay for a vacation without even asking me if I wanted to go? Why the fuck did you spend half a million dollars on clearing the bookstore?”
Her chest heaved, eyes flashing while he processed what she’d said. He was confused. Everything he’d done… She should’ve known it was for her. Because he loved her, would do anything he could for her.
“Wait…”
“No, I’m done waiting Dragan. I’ve been waiting since we were kids.”
“June —”
“You don’t get it, do you?”
“Jun—” Jesus Christ, he really was going to put his fist through the wall if she didn’t stop interrupting.
“You’ve been waiting for this moment, to have all the money in the world so you could bail. Because that’s what everyone does. They leave. But before they go, they want one last bit of fun. I’m just sorry I gave it to you.”
“Stop! June!” His fist flew into the wall and she jumped. He was on fire, panting, staring at her trembling lip. They stood in the silence, the realization of what he’d done coursing through him.
He was his father.
No matter what he did or where he went, he would always have this part of him.
“Look,” he took another deep breath, unclenching the fists at his side, “I don’t know what you’re going on about. If you couldn’t see that I did all of that for you, because of you, I don’t really know what else to say. What I do know if you were with some other guy while we were together, and… I didn’t know. Maybe it’s wrong of me, but I feel lied to.”
“What do you want me to say, Dragan?” She shook her head. “Yeah, I went on some dates with Rhys. We kissed. It was fine, but it wasn’t anything. You and I, we weren’t even actually dating! But you? You lied to me. You did things without my permission, things that directly affect me.”
He stared into her emerald eyes, rimmed red with tears, her hair begging to be pushed back from her forehead so he could plant a soft kiss. Over the years, he had fallen in love with everything little thing about her. The way she laughed at bad jokes, pointed out small but beautiful moments, how she loved to sit in silence as much as she loved passionately discussing everything from which brand had the best ice cream to how to solve world hunger. He had thought asking her to be his fake girlfriend would help them test the waters, see if it was possible to take their love from friendship to something more.
It had been an impossible ask.
He still managed to fall in love with something he never had.
51
June barely recognized the man before her.
She had fallen in love with potential, and he had fallen into the trap he was desperate to climb out of. She watched as Dragan kept his palms flat against his thighs, jaw clenched, lips pressed into a thin line. It was a stand-off, and she refused to speak first.
They let the silence press on, long enough that June was hit with a wave of tiredness. Dragan also relaxed, taking a step toward her.
“You’re right, J. About it all. I wasn’t going anywhere. I wanted to surprise you, to make you feel seen. Loved. That date… it wasn’t a good-bye. At least, not because I was leaving. I knew when word got out about the sale, the money, everything would change. And I wanted to have one real date with you, like what it should’ve been before. In high school. I’m sorry you felt there was anything other than pure love for me to do those things for you. I was so excited that you were finally able to live a life you wanted, and I wanted to support you in that. And you’re right about Rhys. You didn’t — don’t — owe me anything. I don’t want you to feel like that.”
June realized what this was, the way his shoulder hunched over. The defeat written in his eyes. He wasn’t apologizing to win her back. Too much had happened — tonight, in the last few weeks — for them to rekindle anything they might have had.
“I’m sorry, too,” she sighed. “I—I didn’t trust that you wouldn’t leave. That once you saw me, really saw me, it wouldn’t be enough. You have all these big dreams, and I had nothing. And now you have everything. So… Go. Please. Go do everything you talked about doing. Your family, traveling, helping others like you.”
“Like me?”
“Yeah, remember that day a few years ago by the creek when you talked about the non-profit you wanted to start to help really amazing kids who got lost in the shuffle and had to fight their way out because no one gave them a chance?”
Recognition dawned on his face. “You remembered that?”
