Page 55 of The Secret
You have no idea.“Gotta give Theo his lunch.”
“Ah. And here I thought maybe you were stomping off because you were annoyed at me for earlier. Not as fun being provoked as it is doing the provoking, hmm?”
I huffed out a breath. He wasn’t wrong. “Was this really the best forum for that kind of banter, Mr. Bloom?”When you could have picked literally any other time, any other day, ever?
“Maybe your impulsiveness is rubbing off on me.”
I shot him a heated look and kept walking.
“Tsk tsk.Ms. Dorian would be so disappointed. Friends don’t look at each other like they’re plotting murder, Constantine.”
I kept walking.
“Like they’re wondering what their friends’ livers taste like with fava beans,” he continued.
“Oh, please.”
“Like you’re Liam Neeson and I kidnapped your daughter.”
I paused and looked at him. “Is this what it’s like dealing with me?” I demanded. “A relentless barrage of one-liners that aren’t nearly as funny as you think they are?”
“Nah.” Micah shoved his empty burger container into a trash bin. “Your one-liners are way worse.”
I snorted and resumed walking. “Well, at leastIhave the eyelashes to look cute while doing it,” I informed him. Though, honestly, Micah didn’t need to bat his eyelashes. He was plenty cute already.
And that was the problem.
Myproblem.
“Wow. Look at that face! Tell me what unspeakably terrible thing I did to earn that anger,” he teased.
I clutched the cardboard container with the burger more tightly in my hand and came to a full stop in the middle of the path.
The man was constantly saying he wanted honesty from me, right? For me to tell him the truth? Well, okay then.Watch out, Micah.
Micah walked two paces past me before he realized I’d stopped, and turned around to look at me in confusion. “You alright?” His eyes lost their humor as he scanned my face. “I was only joking.”
He glanced around us, maybe wondering if there were people nearby. It was good that one of us was being careful, but this corner of the grounds behind the tents was fairly deserted, with no witnesses but the delivery vans and trucks and cars the vendors had used to haul their stuff.
“You wanna know what you’ve done?” I said. “You’ve made melikeyou, Micah. You made me like you, when it would have been much easier for both of us if I keptdislikingyou the way I should. And then you just walked away. I mean… not literally, but in every way that was important.”
Micah’s eyes widened. “Wait. What?”
“You made mewantyou,” I accused, kind of half-desperate and half-angry. I took a step forward and jabbed a finger at him. “And you even made mewantto want you. So now I can’t stop thinking about youall the fucking time, and it’s driving me insane. I haven’t been to The Hive inweeks. I go from job to job to job, and I keep thinking aboutyou.”
I poked him again and then stared at my hand in horror. “Look at me right now! I’m gettingpissed. Overnothing. Again! You make me insane.” I ran my hand through my hair, so I wouldn’t be tempted to touch him again. “I don’t like it.”
The two of us stood there for a long minute, staring at one another, breathing heavily. Then, finally, Micah spoke.
“Maybe you just don’twantto like it,” he whispered. His tongue traced the corner of his lips and my eyes fixated on that spot like it was a big black X on a treasure map. “You make me insane, too.”
“Oh, right,” I nearly yelled. “Right. That’s why you haven’t said a single thing about that day in the back room? Haven’t so much as held my hand since we left the marsh? Haven’t talked to me about anything more important than whether I like the look of penny gum with hydrangeas?”
Micah’s eyes darkened. “Are you fucking kidding me? Jesus, Con. I was trying to benice. I was trying not to put pressure onyou. I was waiting for you to decide what you wanted. I’ve been right here all along, just—”
“Constantine Ross!” my mother yelled from the parking lot, and the sound was like a blast of hot air rolling over us.
Micah closed his eyes and muttered, “Fuck.”
