Page 45 of Between Now & Heartbreak

“Ohhhh, I get it. You’re looking for a littlewalk on the wild sidebefore you settle down for a life of faking it with Duke?”

My mother would slap the shit out of me if she heard me talk to her like this.

Her smile is gone, but she doesn’t look offended. Instead, she looks disappointed.

“Am I wrong?”

She leans in a little, and looks me in the eyes.

“Yes. You’re very wrong. I’m sorry about the library.. I wasn’t expecting that to happen.”

“I know girls like you think the world exists to entertain you. I don’t. Go back to your side of town, Clover.”

“Don’t call me that.” She says it quietly, but firmly. And for some reason, her denying me the use of the nickname I gave her that night just pisses me off.

“How about, I don’t call you anything.” I turn to leave.

She grabs my arm.

“Why are you making this so hard?” She demands.

“Why are smiling at me when you don’t fucking mean it?” I lash out.

She lets go of my arm and steps away, a look of affront on her face sends a wash of shame through me. It’s uncomfortable and disconcerting. I don’t know why she’s gotten under my skin.

All I know right now is that the way she smells, like cinnamon and citrus, almost stops my heart.

I need her to go away.

Being with her, even as rushed and reckless as it was, felt like heaven.

Someone else’s heaven.

Time to end whatever is going on here.

I cross my arms in front of my chest.

“Listen, I don’t know what’s going with you and him, but I don’t want that kind of trouble. I just— whatever this is… I’m not interested.”

I slip my sunglasses on and close my eyes for a second just to regroup.

I square my shoulders and smile as sincerely as she did earlier.

She stops me with just three words.

“We broke up.”

I turn around to face her and pull my sunglasses off and look closely at her.

Her eyes are as open and honest as I’ve ever seen them.

‘What did you say?”

She holds out her ringless hand as proof.

I just stare at it.

“Carter, I gotta get going soon” Jo calls out behind me. I growl in frustration. If this isn’t bad timing I don’t know what is.

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