Page 182 of My Only

“Sienna.” I shrugged. “I mean… you two were engaged. She wasn’t just your girlfriend, so I’m sure?—”

“Nah, I don’t think of her in that way,” he said, shaking his head. “Because the whole time I was with her, I was thinking about you. And now that I have you? I can’t even imagine anyone else. On God, baby.”

I tossed a piece of popcorn into my mouth.

“Sometimes she crosses my mind, though,” he admitted. “But never in a what if way. Never in a what if I hadn’t found out about her and Marcus way, either. More like in a ‘whew, that was a close one’ kind of way.”

I snickered then tucked my lips into my mouth. “Sometimes I wonder… if you would’ve still married her—if you hadn’t found out about Marcus.”

Hassani nodded slowly. “I would have.”

My stomach tightened.

“Then I would’ve regretted it.” He exhaled. “And been miserable, because she wasn’t the one but I would have kept forcing her to be.”

His eyes softened.

“You were always the one, A. Boogie.”

I couldn’t help smiling.

“All this talk about Sienna…” he mused. “And that night we hooked up before graduation—it just reminded me of something you shared with me back then.”

I arched a brow.

“Your greatest fear,” he said. “With falling in love.”

My brows stayed lifted. “My greatest fear?”

I had changed so much since college.

Sometimes, I didn’t even recognize myself.

I liked me back then.

But I loved me now.

“You told me you didn’t want to fall in love because you were afraid of losing yourself in it.”

“Oh.” I blinked hard. “Wow.” I jerked my head back. “You remembered that? What I told you?”

“I remember every personal thing you tell me, A.” He nodded. “And that? What you said? It was hard to forget.”

I laughed softly. “I didn’t even remember that, and I said it.”

Hassani’s expression turned serious.

“You lived that fear, Ayla.”

I stilled.

The dialogue from the movie filled the silence.

Hassani sighed, looking away. “You lost yourself in my dream… and I was so caught up, I didn’t see it until now.”

I reared my head back.

That realization settled in.

---