You’re not good enough. You’re right back in the same pigeonhole where everyone puts you once they get to know you.
“If you were lying to me before, I’m not sure if I want to hearthe truth now.” I sound bitter and closed, and not at all like me. I wonder how he does that. How does he manage to raise these thoughts in me when I try so hard to only make room for positivity in my life? I don’t want to lose this fight. I can’t.
Wren takes a step toward me. There’s only eighteen inches or so between us. “I lied when I said we were friends, Ember.”
A horrible twinge twists my belly.
I knew it.
I knew it the first time he spoke to me. I could slap myself for having been nosy and for wanting to meet new people so badly.
A storm is growing inside me, trying to sweep me away, but I’m fighting it with all my might.
“You know what? I don’t have to put myself through this,” I say through gritted teeth, going to push past him. “So, if you’d kindly let me through?”
“Ember,” says Wren intently.
I refuse to look at his face, just stare at his chest.
“You misunderstood me,” he says quietly, but still with that urgency in his voice. “I don’t want to be just your friend, Ember. I’d like…more.”
Suddenly, the thoughts in my head fall silent. I look into Wren’s eyes but can’t utter a word.
He takes a ragged breath and clears his throat. “When we first met, I just wanted a bit of fun. But then I got to know you properly and discovered what an amazing person you are. I started missing you, even though we were in touch the whole time. I looked forward to it every time we met. You were always there for me, even though I could barely give you anything in return, and so, bit by bit, I realized something.” His voice isgetting hoarser the longer he speaks, and in the end, he has to cough again before he can carry on. “I like you, Ember. More than that. I think I’ve fallen head over heels in love with you.”
My ears can hear nothing but a loud roaring as Wren’s words play again and again in my head. I try to understand what they mean, try to understand what’s happening here, but I can’t.
I just stand there and stare at him.
“I realize that you don’t want anything like that from me. And I realize that—”
That snaps me out of my trance. “Says who?” I interrupt.
He opens his mouth and shuts it again. “Says who, what?”
“That I don’t want anything like that from you. Says who?” I ask.
“You did. Our first evening at Maxton Hall. You were pretty clear when you told me what you thought of me. And I respect that.”
“You mean on the evening when I’d met you all of about two seconds earlier, and you tried to kiss me even though you were drunk?” I ask in disbelief.
Wren gulps hard. “Yeah.”
“I didn’t even know you! I’m not the kind of girl who finds it easy to trust people, let alone someone who’d make out with a complete stranger.”
For a moment, Wren doesn’t reply. After a few seconds, he utters a monotone “Oh.”
I feel my heart hammering wildly against my rib cage. This moment between us is so intense that I’m almost dizzy.
“Why didn’t you want me at your party?” I ask.
Wren lifts a hand and rubs the back of his neck. “I was scared. Of how my friends would react the first time they came to mynew house. Of how Ruby and James would react when they found out we knew each other. And I was kind of scared of my own feelings. And that moment was a mixture of all of that.”
“I thought you didn’t want your friends to know about me, and that hurt,” I say, and Wren shakes his head at once.
“It’s not that. It truly isn’t that, Ember. It was…the timing. I was out of my depth.”
“If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have reacted so harshly.”
