Page 130 of When We Ignite
Henry grinned. “Cut Oli some slack. He was probably blindsided. You know we’re not great at standing up to Dad. He must feel like shit right now.”
I sighed, the knot in my chest loosening slightly. “I’ll try. But I’m not going back in there right now,” I said, earning a chuckle from him.
“Oh, I know. I’ll keep you company while you lick your wounds,” he teased.
“Fuck off,” I exhaled, though the bite was gone from my words.
“Hey, while I have you here and tame,” he said, turning to face me.
I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.
“What the fuck is going on with you and Ethan?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. I’ve never seen you like this with anyone before,” he said with a knowing smile.
I hesitated, but Henry was the only person I could talk to about this. “I don’t know. That kid could ask me to jump off a building, and I’d only ask which one,” I confessed.
Henry let out a surprised laugh. “Ash,” he said, his grin wide but his eyes confused.
“He keeps catching me off guard. Maybe it’s generational,” I offered weakly.
“Bullshit. You just like him,” Henry said plainly.
“Of course I like him. I wouldn’t be in this mess if I didn’t.”
“No, I mean more than you normally do,” Henry clarified.
I took another drag, mulling it over. “Yes. Probably,” I admitted. My mind wandered to Ethan over my desk, and everything else faded into the background. “With everything that’s happening, he’s turned into…”
“A distraction?” Henry offered.
“No. Ethan’s like a…treat,” I said, the word fitting perfectly.
Henry blinked. “What the hell does that mean?”
“When I’m with him, all this fucking mess with Dad turns into white noise. I don’t have to worry about stakes, or problem-solving, or his ego. Ethan’s just mine—alone in the dark. It’s so fucking hard to quit him when all I want to do is indulge.”
Henry’s expression shifted from surprise to understanding, and it unsettled me.
I waved it off, feeling the tightness in my chest. “It’s a good thing there’s a deadline,” I added, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Yeah, but you don’t have to follow that. If you really like him, I’m sure Oli would understand in the long run.”
“No. It ends when it ends.”
“But, Ash—” he started.
“No. I know you like him too, Henny. Ethan’s great, but this isn’t going past what we agreed. There are a million reasons this shouldn’t even be happening, starting with the fact that I can’t be in a relationship with a nineteen-year-old.”
Henry’s frown deepened. “But you can fuck him.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “Yeah, because no one knows,” I replied, the words stinging like acid on my tongue. I didn’t want to hide him. After struggling to come out as a teen, I promised myself I was never going to hide. Being with Ethan had never felt wrong. There was nothing wrong about us.
Henry looked away, his lips pulling down. “You don’t treat him like it’s going to end,” he said softly.
He had a point. I told myself to watch what I said and did with Ethan, but I kept falling out of line. He brought out a protectiveness in me I hadn’t felt for anyone else. I wanted him to feel special. It wasn’t just about sex anymore—I wanted him. All of him.
