Page 68 of Heartless
“Excuse me?”
“You are a completely different person around them. It's like you are a soulless statue.”
I didn't know what to say to that, so I just dropped my gaze down to the puppy in my lap.
After a few awkward moments of silence he asked. “When was the last time you fell in love?”
I snort laughed and returned the question. “When was the last timeyoufell in love?”
“Twelve years ago,” he said without any hesitation.
“Who was she?”
“I feel like playing our game tonight. An answer for an answer.”
“I don’t fall in love.”
He shot me a disbelieving look. "Now you are just flat-out lying to me."
“I’m not. The last time I felt like I was in love was with my high school boyfriend.”
“Is that why you slept with him at your sister’s bachelorette party? Because you still have feelings for him?”
“No.”
“So? What happened? He fucked around in high school, broke your heart, and you swore off men?”
“No. We graduated. I moved. I thought I was going to be devastated. It turned out I wasn’t.”
“And yet you hooked up with him years later. Why?”
“I don't know.”
“That's the lazy answer.”
“Lazy or not, that's the answer you're getting.”
Parker let out a small chuckle, shaking his head.
“Your turn,” I changed the subject. “Who was the woman you fell in love with twelve years ago?”
“The kindest person I had ever met. The moment I saw her, I knew she was it for me. My end game.”
“Something went wrong between you two apparently,” I said, ignoring the sting I felt from the way he spoke about her.
A resigned smile appeared on his face, but he said nothing.
“So? You graduated and she dumped you?” I asked.
“Can I save that part of the story for another time? I really don’t want to get into it right now.”
“Sure,” I said and shrugged as if I didn’t care that much, while unhealthy curiosity made me want to continue my interrogation. But most of the time he respected my boundaries more than I respected his, so I stopped asking.
With his eyes on the road, he reached for me, or at least I thought it was for me, until he patted the dog’s head. “I’m not trying to hide anything. It’s just not the right time.”
“Please, Parker,” I laughed. “Why would I be concerned about you hiding something? We’re fake. I don’t care about your love life.”
He removed his hand from the dog and squeezed the wheel. “Noted.”
