She lets me go, and I sit back down, chest tight and eyes hot. “How am I going to get her back?”
“Use your wiles. You’re smart. And charming. Even all the teachers you tormented in elementary school ask me how you are. You know everything about Cat. Use it.”
“I do?”
“Of course you do. She was your best friend from age five to age eighteen, even when you fought. I know you had your differences, but you know her favorite foods, her quirks, her love of secret hideouts, her fondness for old books. I know you don’t like to think of the past, but you have all the tools you need to win her.”
“What if she hates me?”
“Then you better start by apologizing.”
I knock on Cat’s door that night. I know she’s there. I heard her moving around earlier, even though the door is thick oak.
“Go away,” she says.
“No,” I tell her. “I’m not leaving.”
A second later, she wrenches the door open. Her eyes are red and puffy, and her hair is up in a messy bun. My fault. I was supposed to protect her, and I made her cry.
“What?” she asks.
“Have dinner with me.”
“I don’t want to talk to you,” she says bluntly.
I capture a lock of her hair that’s come loose from her bun. It’s silky and soft as I rub it between my fingers. She lets me, wary and fragile, like prey about to bolt.
“You don’t have to talk,” I say with a small smile. “Please, Cat.”
“I should make you beg me,” she says quietly. “You betrayed me, Theo. You spent months making me feel like I was safe with you, and then I let my guard down, and bam, you hit me right where it hurts the most.”
The words land with lethal precision. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I was wrong. I couldn’t see past my own hurt. If you have dinner with me, I’ll explain.”
She doesn’t respond, just bites her lip. I press my thumb to it, pulling the pink flesh free of her teeth, then caressing her freckle. “Please, Cat.” She swallows, and I feel the motion in my hand. “I’ll beg you. Do you want me on my knees, princess?”
“Don’t call me that,” she whispers.
“I don’t mean it as an insult,” I say gently.
“You’re going to be annoying about this, aren’t you?”
“So annoying,” I say in a low voice. “I’m going to annoy you right back into my arms.”
“Fine,” she huffs, but she sounds marginally less irritated. “I’ll have dinner with you, but that’s it.”
I smile to myself as she precedes me down the hall. We’ll see about that.
48
Cat
Theo wants to eat on the couch in the blue living room. There’s a spread on one of the trays. Cheese, crackers, tomatoes, olives, nuts. A bottle of white wine in a silver bucket.
“What is this?” I ask. It looks romantic, something my heart can’t take right now.
“Dinner,” he says. “And a movie if you want one.” He presses the button that makes the flatscreen descend from the ceiling. The opening credits for Ever After are cued up.
Devious man.