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“I barely know you.” She looked irritated as she hung theDick Tracycanvas on the hook. Archer couldn’t even focus on the way her back arched as she tried to line it up just right because her face had soured.
It was like she’d slapped him. “On the contrary, I think you know me better than anyone ever has before.”
She twirled around, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. “Can you stop doing that?”
“What?”
She gestured toward him vaguely. “That. All that. Speaking like someone out of an English lit essay—”
“I didn’t realize my vocabulary was aproblem.”
“—acting like last weekend was a bigger deal than it was.” The way her eyes widened as she stared down at him, he couldn’t help but feel like she’d pulled back the veil on something he’d known all along. That she didn’t feel the way he felt about her, that he’d messed up every step of the way thus far, that he seemed like a love-stricken, idiotic fool.
He didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. If that was how she felt, he couldn’t change her mind. He’d tried to give her some space, even though being apart from her for a week hadkilledhim, had almost made him call up Scrubbing Cherubs to request her and pay for her services out of his own pocket. But part of him had known. She couldn’t have beenthatbusy, especially since a slot in her afternoons had suddenly opened up unexpectedly.
“Look, I’m sorry.” She threw her hands in the air before leaning back against the wall space beside the cabinet, her head brushing against the canvas she’d hung up. “I shouldn’t have pushed you—”
“You didn’t push me.”
“I should have figured out you were a virgin because you said you’d never been kissed before. I should have backed off.”
Archer felt acid run over his tongue. “I wasn’tsaving myself, Brielle.” He gestured to his lap. “I had additional concerns most people don’t when it comes to making that decision. Was I supposed to remain a virgin forever?”
“No. No, that’s not even what I mean.” She tousled her hair, and he would have found it alluring if they weren’t arguing. “It just shouldn’t have been withme.”
“Because you didn’t want to have to deal with me afterward? Because you couldn’t picture yourself dealing with someone in a wheelchair forever—because you could see the burden that lay before you after you’d just taken one step through that doorway?”
“You’re putting words in my mouth.” Her eyes narrowed. “This isn’t about you being in a wheelchair. Or about you at all.”
“Don’t give me the old, ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ thing.” He gripped his wheel rims tightly, although he didn’t even know where he planned to go.
She raised an eyebrow. “Because you’ve heard that so many times?”
“How would you even know? You never ask me about anything.”
“You’re proving my point. We barely know each other.”
He slammed his fist against his armrest. “Iwantto know you. Iwantto support you through whatever’s bothering you. But you act like I’m this pest, like you just wanted to jump me once and then walk out of my life entirely.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?” She gestured around her.
“So why are you?”
“I don’t know. I… I might not even be here in a few months. In a few weeks. We just met at a really bad ti—” She bent down to pick up a piece of paper that had fallen beneath one of the kitchen chairs. “Your mom forgot my information? Did she put it into her phone or…?”
“No,” said Archer, swallowing. “She forgot all about it. We fought that night—”
“Over what? Over me?”
I thought she didn’t want to know anything about me.“Over a lot of things.”
She held the paper up between her middle and index finger. “But I was one of them. She has no intention of getting in touch with the museum people for me.”
“No, I suppose not.”
“And you knew? Last Sunday you knew even, and you didn’t think to mention that to me?”
“I didn’t really think it borementioning. It’s not like she guaranteed you a position. I hope you weren’tcountingon that.”
