Page 52 of The Summer I Destroyed You

“I slept with Troy,” I announce. “A tiger can’t change her spots.”

My stomach drops at the flash of pain in his eyes. Some small voice in my head—a child’s voice—screams at me to take my lie back.

But instead, I just walk into the house, emptier than I was when I left, with a ridiculous desire to burst into tears when things with Liam were never going to work out anyway.

They really weren’t.

27

LIAM

On Monday, we cut out of work early for Mac’s bachelor party. As the most whipped groom who has ever lived, he insisted on nothing raucous: no strippers, and no females whatsoever. We’ve spent the day giving him shit about it—one of the guys gave him a tiara and an “I’m the bride!” sash, and he wore them with pride all day long—but the truth is that I suspect I’d be the same way with the right girl.

I bet, with the right girl, I’d look exactly the way Mac does tonight: as if he’d just as soon be home with his fiancée, as if a part of him is eager to put all this behind him.

And that right fucking girl is never going to be Emmy.

That kiss was all I’d thought about from the moment it ended until I saw her on the deck Monday morning. And I’d begun thinking other things too. I’d begun thinking that she felt it, the way it was different with us. That she and I’d had a connection all along, one we didn’t have with anyone else.

I still think it. But she’s made it pretty fucking clear we won’t be exploring it.

It’s on the late side Wednesday when she finally walks into the grocery store. I can tell just by her stride, the precise clip, clip, clip of her heels, that she is all business today. Our eyes meet, and she looks at me as if I’m a stranger and walks past to her office.

“It takes me less time to get off on Pornhub than you just spent watching her walk across the room,” JP says.

“We’ve discussed this before, JP. Being able to finish quickly is nothing you want to brag about.”

“What’s up with you two anyway?” Mac asks. “You act like you hate each other, but it’s all lingering glances and romantic tension whenever you’re in the same room.”

I grin. “Cassie’s been making you watch The Notebook again, hasn’t she?”

“Cassie’s never stopped making me watch The Notebook. I know that goddamned movie by heart at this point.”

“Nothing’s up with us,” I tell him. Nor will it be. It’s done. I’m done with the whole goddamned thing.

I’m wrapping up for the day when she emerges from her office, striding out to the sidewalk as she eviscerates someone on the phone. It’s only the two of us in the store when she walks back in. Her gaze falls to the toolbox in my hand, and I somehow sense her displeasure. “Early day for you.”

I glance at my watch. “It’s after six.”

“I wasn’t complaining,” she says. “You just normally work later.”

I grab my keys. “I have plans.”

She hops onto the same table where she sat last week to bait me. Just as she did then, her legs cross, her foot swinging playfully. “Oh, plans. How exciting. Is it a date?”

She’s smiling, but there’s a glint to that smile, as if she’s hiding a knife behind her back as she asks.

“What was it you said to me the other night?” I ask. “Oh yeah. That’s none of your business. But yes, I have a date.”

A date I desperately wish I hadn’t made.

She leans backward on her palms. “Ah, yes, the hunt for your soulmate. I’m curious about this actually…Do you have other requirements or is it mostly just someone who will notice if you fall through a roof?”

“Well, I’m also looking for a woman who doesn’t fuck random men to get back at her mother or a high school enemy, but that goes without saying for most people.”

She frowns. “Still judging me, then.”

I grab my toolkit. “As I think I mentioned on Saturday, I wasn’t judging you.”

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