Page 79 of Fake It Till We Fall
He froze for half a second, then kept moving. He’d been avoiding me for days. Leaving my texts unread, my calls unanswered. I’d had more than enough.
My breath puffed out sharply in front of me as I marched across the icy plaza. “Don’t you dare ignore me, Grayson Lyons.” I planted myself in his path, giving him no option but to stop or bump into me.
“What do you want, Harper?”
His expression was unreadable, guarded in a way that sent a chill through me, in a way that not even the subzero temperatures outside could.
“I’m busy.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.” I swallowed hard, trying to steady my voice. “You’ve been avoiding me. Pretending nothing’s wrong. You owe me more than that.”
His laugh was short and sharp, nothing like the warm sound I loved. “I don’t owe you anything.”
The words cut deep. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means.”
“No.” I wrapped my coat tighter around me and crossed my arms. “I don’t.”
“You already know I saw the message,” he said. “The captain. Anchors up, Harper.” He held up his hands in a mockery of air quotes and sneered. “Congratulations. You got everything you always wanted.”
I didn’t know this version of Grayson. This cold, closed-off version. And I didn’t like it.
“You didn’t even let me?—”
“Explain?” He cut me off with a sharp shake of his head. “Don’t bother. You’ve always wanted more than this. I can’t believe I thought that this time I might actually be enough foryou. But you know what? I’m done standing here like a fool waiting for you to figure it out, Harper. I’m done.”
His words hit me like a slap, stealing my breath and my words.
“Leave.” He waved a gloved hand, dismissing me when I didn’t speak. “You always do.”
The plaza spun around me. “You’re such an ass,” I said finally.
“Whatever.” His voice was flat. Final. “Like I said, I’m done.”
I stared at him. The man I’d loved my entire life. Even when I tried not to, there was always only Grayson. Looking at him, I saw the same walls he’d put up all those years ago, felt the same ache. History was repeating itself in the cruelest way. Only worse, because I’d let myself believe that this time it might be different. My throat burned. “If you’re so sure that I was just going to leave like that, then you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”
“I guess not.”
“Screw you, Grayson.”
My hand trembled as I yanked the ring from my finger. Again. With tears stinging my eyes and freezing on my cheeks, I hurled it at his chest. Again.
“Keep it this time.”
Grayson didn’t even move his hands to try to catch it. I watched as it bounced off his chest and hit the snow at his feet.
I looked up at his cold stare one last time. My chin trembled, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry.
I spun on my heel and, boots crunching hard in the snow, stormed back across the plaza to the warmth of the restaurant.
I didn’t turn around. What was the point?
Grayson
The wind cutthrough my coat as I hauled another board toward the half-built stage. My fingers were stiff inside my gloves and my breath came in harsh puffs of icy air, but it didn’t matter. I welcomed the sting of the cold, the distraction of the repetitive work, anything to drown out Harper’s voice in my head and the look in her eyes when she threw the ring back at me.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment before shaking it off again. It wasn’t worth it. The heartache, the drama…I couldn’t do it again. Not when she was so clearly not in it with me. And she wasn’t. Not if she could leave so easily, without so much as a word to me about it.
