Page 79 of Pucking Grey

“What?” she asks.

“I think that Grey didn’t want to do anything with me because he wants to make sure I know that he’s not touching me in spite of Matt. Clearly, fake dating me is in spite of him, yes. I’ll make that clear. But he has rejected me left and right, Sydney. Like everything you’ve ever explained about how Grey is with hooking up and all that? It never applied to me. In my eyes, the guy is kind of a virgin prude. Well, except for that one really hot kiss. But I think all the intimate rejection is because –”

“Because he actually likes you!” Sydney shouts.

“Wait, what?” I ask, almost laughing. “You think he actually likes me now? Twenty minutes ago you were just saying –”

“I know what I was saying, Maddie. But that was before I heard what Ace said. Ace doesn’t ever waste his breath on these things. He’s backing up Grey because he knows something’s up with Grey. You know what? Why don’t we ask him?”

“What?” I say to Sydney as she grabs my wrist. And now it’s my turn to be dragged through the party. On the way, I catch my brother talking to Matt. Matt looks like a child being scolded. I wonder what Ryan is saying to him, even though I asked him to stay out of it.Oh well.

“Ace!” Sydney hollers. “And Knox.” She nods at the both of them.

Ace walks over with purpose. He’s tall and viciously good-looking with good style. I think I’ve only noticed this right now.

Sydney says, “We need to play cupid because our best friends accidentally broke up.”

Ace glances at me and then observes Sydney. I think a heated moment silently passes between the two of them. I can’t be sure, but maybe.

Ace says, “I tried to force him here. He said he didn’t want to come out of respect for Maddie because she ghosted him the other day.”

I scoff, unable to find my words. “Wha– I – N– Wait,” I stutter.

Sydney says to me, “You did kind of ghost him, but it was with perfect reason. Her eyebrows looked like two landing strips on her face.”

My heart sinks into my stomach. “Ew,” I say at her analogy as Ace and Knox glance at my eyebrows.

“That wasn’t a made-up story?” Knox asks.

I shake my head. “No, the brow lady screwed up so badly, and I didn’t want Grey to see me like that. It looked really bad.”

Sydney laughs. “It was horrible.” She turns to me. “And he thought you were ghosting him, see?”

“Okay, so he thinks that I ghosted him. But then he goes to a party right after? That sounds like he was happy to be a free man.”

Ace shakes his head. “He was on edge all night. Shit, he was on edge all day. Especially after Matt came pounding on his door this morning to tell him not to come to the party.”

Sydney claps her hands. “This is all making sense. He thinks you want to get back with Matt, so he’s giving you the space to figure that out.”

“Oh my god. I’m such an idiot!” I blink at the three of them. “What can I do now?” I start thinking about the possibilities.

Ace pulls out his phone. “I’ll call him.”

“Wait,” I say as he presses on Grey’s name and the phone starts ringing. I wait patiently with my heart in my throat.

It rings and rings until it reaches his voicemail.

Ace shakes his head as he shoves his phone back in his pocket.

“Ace,” I murmur. “I feel really dumb for having to ask this question. It feels immature like high school.”

Sydney says, “Then don’t ask it.”

I ignore her. “Do you think I’m wasting my time?”

Ace stares at me.

I continue, “I’ll take your word for it, but it’s killing me not knowing if I should fight for this or not. My eyebrow story is a real story. I have pictures.”

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