He rubs his face. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.” He’s quiet for a moment, waiting for me to ask why. I don’t take the bait. He continues anyway. “I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out what the hell went wrong last night.”
I’m surprised that it’s bothering him this much. “And what did you come up with?”
He shakes his head. “Nothing. One moment we’re playing a game, and the next you’re storming away from me.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re either really good at playing dumb, or you have a terrible memory.”
I slide out of bed. This room doesn’t have its own bathroom, so I walk past him and let myself into the room that I was supposed to share with him last night. The bed is still made. I wonder where he slept. I go into the bathroom and stick my toothbrush in my mouth.
“And you’re very good at demonstrating how you stormed off last night,” he says. I look up at him. He’s leaning in the bathroom doorway, arms crossed. “Like right now.”
“Maybe you should put those observation skills to use and figure out what you said that hurt me.” I spit out my toothpaste and push past him. I head out of the room and down the stairs.
“Hurt you?” he repeats behind me. “Ihurtyou?”
I turn around at the bottom of the stairs. He stops abruptly so that he doesn’t run into me. “Why are you saying it like that?”
“Like what?” he asks.
“Like you can’t believe that you could have possibly hurt me.”
“Morning, sunshine,” Tina says behind me in a cheerful voice. I look over my shoulder at her. I don’t notice her and Ryan sitting at the kitchen table until now.
“Morning,” I mumble.
“Do you want to continue this conversation upstairs?” Oliver asks.
“Actually, Ryan and I were about to head out,” Tina says.
“For a very romantic hike,” Ryan adds.
Tina giggles and elbows him. “Yes. The most romantic of all hikes. We’ll leave you two lovebirds alone to sort out your quarrel.”
Oliver and I stare at each other. Neither of us moves until Tina and Ryan leave the cabin. As soon as we’re alone, we both start up at the same time.
“What do you mean I hurt you?” Oliver asks at the same time as I say, “How do you not know that you hurt me?”
We both pause. I wait for Oliver to speak next.
“You hurtme,” he says.
Even though I want to disagree, I know that I have to hear him out. “How?”
“Last year when you shut me down in front of everyone at the bar and then acted like a total—” He cuts himself off.
“A total what?” I prod. “Total bitch?”
He shrugs. “I was going to say asshole. You insult me and make me feel like an idiot every chance you get. How stupid of me to think that anything had changed over the last few weeks.”
“As if you’re not guilty of the exact same thing,” I argue. “And I didn’t shut you down back then. You embarrassed me in front of everyone.”
His brow wrinkles. “That was never my intention.”
“I have a hard time believing that, Oliver. You used what I said to Tina against me. Not only that, but you did it in front of everyone at the bar. That was a real slap in the face.”
“I wasnottrying to embarrass you.”
“Then what the hell were you trying to do?”
