Page 60 of Light My Fire Three Times
“Oh, spare me,” I snap, cutting him off. “You’ve made it very clear, Leo. You don’t want me here. You’ve been glaring at me since the second I walked into this house, muttering under your breath, slamming cabinets like I stole your puppy. Newsflash: I didn’t ask for my apartment to burn down. I didn’t ask to crash your perfect little firefighter bromance. I want to get out of here as much as you want me gone.”
I blink away traitorous tears as Karl’s words flood me.
We’ve only been on one date, Leo. One. I was just being kind.
I hate not being wanted here, but I can’t get out fast enough.
Color rises in Leo’s face, jaw tight. “It’s not about?—”
“Yes, it is,” I fire back, stepping closer, my hands shaking but steady. “You think I don’t notice the way you go silent every timeI walk into a room? The way you act like I’m contaminating the air just by breathing it. You don’t trust me? Fine. But at least have the guts to admit you don’t want me around instead of hiding behind your moody glares.”
His eyes flash. “I never said I didn’t want you around.”
I laugh, sharp and humorless. “Could’ve fooled me.”
He steps forward then, closing the space between us in one long stride. His presence hits me like a wall: heat, tension, something darker under the surface.
“If I didn’t want you here, Olivia, you’d know.”
My breath stutters. “Idoknow. You make it clear.”
His eyes narrow, sharp enough to cut. “You think every glare, every slammed cabinet, every clipped word is me not wanting you? You really think I’d waste that much energy on someone I didn’t care about?”
I blink, startled. “Care? That’s what you call it? You’ve spent two weeks acting like I’m a cockroach you can’t squash.”
“Because you don’t get it,” he bites out, his voice rising. “You walk in here with your coffee and your sarcasm and your…your smile, and suddenly everything feels different. I feel different. And I don’t want to. I can’t want to.”
The words slam into me, hot and confusing. “So, it’smyfault? For existing? For not rolling over and letting you hate me in peace?”
His jaw ticks. He’s grinding the words to dust before spitting them out. “No. It’s my fault for noticing. For watching you laugh with Karl and Ivy and every damn person in this town like you’ve always belonged here. I want to walk into the kitchen and find you there. For…for looking forward to it, when I shouldn’t.”
Huh?
What the hell is he talking about?
My brain stutters. The words don’t fit together. What the hell is he even talking about? He’s mad at me… for existing in proximity? For making coffee? For… laughing?
My stomach flips, heat flooding my face. “So, what, you resent me because you like me? That makes no sense, Leo. None. I would talk to you, too, if you wanted me to.”
His laugh is sharp, bitter. “You think I haven’t told myself that? Every night I lie awake telling myself to stop, to ignore it, to shut it down. And then I walk in here and you’re barefoot, dancing around the stove like you own the place, and I…” His hands flex helplessly at his sides. “I can’t breathe.”
My pulse thrums, unsteady. “You’ve been punishing me. For making you feel something you don’t want to feel.”
His eyes flash, wild and desperate. “I don’t hate you, Olivia. I wish I did. I hate that I can’t stop wanting you.”
The room tilts. I grip the counter behind me, searching his face for the lie, the catch, the cruel punchline that never comes.
Is that why the entire conversation with Karl took place?
“Then why spend the last two weeks treating me like I’m toxic?” My voice shakes, but it’s steel underneath. “Why make me feel like I’m intruding on a life I never asked to crash?”
His chest heaves, ragged. “Because wanting you feels like betrayal. To Karl. To myself. To every damn rule I’ve lived by since the day I became a firefighter. I haven’t even wanted to admit it to myself until now.”
It lands in me. All this time, I thought he hated me. But it wasn’t hate. It was restraint stretched so tight it snapped.
And that knowledge? It’s gasoline on the fire.
The air between us crackles, alive, too hot. I open my mouth to say something,anything, but he moves first.
