Page 3 of Hoax and Kisses
I raise my hand. “You need to leave.”
Eyes widening, he takes a step forward. “It’s not like I’m—I didn’t—” He breaks off, as if his mind is swirling as out of control as mine is.
Though I doubt his thoughts are anywhere near the ones plaguing me. As I survey him, my brain reorganizes the pieces of our lives, molding a new reality, dismantling the past six months in search of a logical explanation to this fucking mess.
His shoulders sag. “I didn’t mean for it to go as far as it did. It just… happened.”
I let out a small, humorless laugh. “Seriously? That’s what you’re going with? And what exactlyhappened, Jake?”
“I’m in love with her.”
The words reverberate in my skull like an echo that refuses to fade.
In love with her.Is that a fucking joke?
He takes another step toward me and puts his hands on my arms.
I hate that I let him. I hate that I don’t pull away.
“I didn’t—I didn’t plan for this. I never meant for it to—”
“You didn’t plan for it? Six months, Jake. Six months of lying, of sneaking around, of betraying my trust. Betraying me. And you think you can stand there and say youdidn’t mean for it to happen? That youdidn’t plan for it?”
His face falls, but an instant later, anger flares behind his eyes. “You’re right. I have no excuse. But I won’t let you belittle me as if you’re a saint with no fault. We’ve had problems since the day we met, but you refused to address them because, oh, surprise, you were too busyworking. None of this would have happened if you had just—”
My heart plummets in my chest and I free myself from his touch. “Oh, don’t you dare go there. Don’t youdareput your cowardice on me.”
Silence stretches between us. I replay the last two years, recalling all the times his head was buried in his phone, every smile he directed at his screen. I want to fucking throw up.
Jake doesn’t speak. Doesn’t move. I’ve known him long enough to know I won’t get an apology out of him, and honestly, I don’t want one. What’s the point?
I take a step back, cold and empty.
“Zoey…”
“I’m done. We’re done. I want you to leave.” The words are like stones in my mouth, but I force them out anyway.
With a shake of his head, he snatches his jacket from the chair. “Yeah, wearedone. Good luck, Zoey. I hope you find someone worth your time one day.”
I don’t look at him as he walks out. I refuse to give him that satisfaction. Only when the door closes after him do I let the tears roll down my cheeks.
The man I loved is gone. My best friend betrayed me. And all I’m left with is the wreckage of those relationships.
But if my father has taught me anything, it’s that our hardest moments only make us stronger. And nothing is ever torn down completely.
So I’ll take the night to be sad, to mourn those losses. To break his stuff and burn his clothes.
But tomorrow? Tomorrow, I’ll rebuild.
Chapter One
ZOEY
Have you ever felt as though the person you are now is nothing like the one you wanted to be when you were younger? That at some point, something went horribly wrong and the path that was so clearly mapped out in your mind dissolved into a future that, in hindsight, was inevitable?
My shift was so brutal that I can’t even remember who I pictured myself becoming all those years ago. What my childhood aspirations were.
It’s as if one day, I just—poof—grew up and forgot all the hopes that once filled me with wonder and made my heart pound in my chest. The dreams I once thought would come true (because how could they not?) remained just that: dreams. And as time went by, they faded into mirages that made me question whether they ever existed at all.
