Page 140 of Reconciling With the Rival

“I need you to open your door,” I say as I jog up the stairs.

“It’s almost midnight, Leo. I’m about to go to sleep.”

“I’m not going to knock and risk my sister answering it. Get your sexy arse out of bed and open your door.” Just as I reach her flat, the door swings open, and I’m met with the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, wearing her usual matching pajama set she has in a thousand different colors.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

When I see Leostanding in my doorway with a smirk on his face, I feel like I fell into a parallel universe.

What the hell is he doing here at midnight?

“Could this not have waited until tomorrow? Or better yet, Monday at work?” I ask him as he leans against my door frame.

“Can I come in?”

“Why?”

“Ella, I need you to invite me in.”

I roll my eyes at him, but I hate that I’m happy to see him. He looks good, despite his shirt being on backward. “Come on in,” I tell him, confused as to why he needed an invitation when normally he just barges in.

Before I can spin around and ask what the hell he’s doing here, he grabs my hand and leads me back to my bedroom, softly shutting the door.

“Leo, what’s going on?” I hate that I love how his hand feels in mine. I’ve missed his touch, as much as I hate admitting that. Tonight might be getting my hopes up, and I thought I killed all those after I left England, but I guess they decided to stick around.

He’s pacing around my room, and as I'm about to ask him again, he speaks. “You’re driving me crazy, Ella. This time, I might actually go insane.”

“And you’re telling me, why?”

“Because it’s all your fault.” He faces me and grabs both my hands. “I can’t get you out of my fucking head, Ella. You’re all I can think about, and I’m tired of pretending you don’t cloud all my thoughts every second of every day since that conversation in the restaurant.”

“That was like a month ago, Leo. I thought we had moved past it,” I say, my heart in my ass as he speaks.

“That’s just it, though. There’s no moving past you, at least not for me. I can’t move past, through, or beyond you, and I don’t want to, Ella. I want to bewithyou, and I know you feel this too. I know I betrayed your trust, and I’ll do anything to gain it back, because this torment I feel over you? I know it’s not enough to slide back into your good graces, but fuck, I want more than anything to be yours. I want to call you mine, and I need to know how you feel, because it can’t just be me feeling this.”

“Leo, what—”

He drops his hands from mine as if they’re on fire. “I know I didn't answer when you asked me what I wanted. Truthfully, it took you walking away from me to figure it out.”

“And what do you want, Leo?”

“You, Ella. I want you.”

His confession makes my body freeze. This isn't what I was expecting to happen when his name flashed across my phone.

“No, you don’t,” is all I manage to say.

“Yes, I do. I want to know how you feel, Ella. Please tell me you want me how I want you.”

“And how do you want me?”

“Forever, Ella. I want to fight with you forever if I’m able.”

“No, you don’t.” I don’t believe this. I cannot believe he would show up here and say all these things.

The other part of me—the stupid part—wants him to keep talking, wants him to keep begging for me to say how I feel.

“I don’t know what I want in every aspect of my life, but the only thing I’m sure of is that I want you.”

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