Page 82 of Burn With Me

Likeshedid.

If love is going around and around, hurting each other with unspoken words and misunderstood meanings, then what is the point?

“She’s hurting, Jackson. She let her guard down with you, and you hurt her. Give her some time.” He falls silent as the waiter returns and sets his salad in front of him, asking if I’d decided on a meal.

Shaking my head no, I wave him off as my uncle starts talking again. “For the record, no, I haven’t told her. But the longer you wait, Jackson, the worse it will be. How the hell did you even manage to get a second ID card?”

“Security in that place isn’t as tight as you think it is. Trust me, I’ve compiled a long list of things that need to be changed.” I rub my eyes, which are becoming increasingly drier with my lack of water intake this week. Setting my chin in my hand, I massage my temple with two fingers as a headache starts to form.

“How did you even know it was her?” His phone lights up from its place on the table, and I lean forward to see who it is, but it’s a number I don’t know.

“Easy. I’d recognize those eyes anywhere paired with her hair.”

Because she calls to me like a siren to a ship at sea.

“You really do have it bad, kid. So what are you going to do about it? You can’t keep something like that a secret forever. Not if you plan on trying to have a relationship withher.” He’s talking to me, but his attention is now focused on his phone, causing a scowl to pull at his face. “I gotta get back to the office. You need to go home, sit in the sauna, and detox while you think about how you’re going to make this right.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Is all I say as I watch him leave.

I set my hand on the table, my fingers twitching to grab my phone and call her again. I’m like a drug addict who hasn’t had his fix in days.

Tomorrow. I can wait until tomorrow. Even if it’s as her stranger, I’ll get to see her.

“Is there anything else I can get you, sir?” the waiter asks as he sets my bill down.

“Have you ever fallen in love?” I ask, pulling my wallet from the pocket inside my jacket.

“Love? Uh, no, sir. Can’t say that I have.” He looks young. Bright and wide-eyed. Probably working his way through school. I pull out a crisp hundred and lay it on the bill. It’s enough to cover it and give him over a hundred percent tip.

“Good. It fucking sucks. My advice?Don’t. That’s the best tip I can give you.”

Ginny

It’s been almost an entire week, and still, my chest hurts as though it were only this morning.

I’m late—the only sound in the Dreamers hall is the click of my shoes on the hardwood and the soft tap of my guard’s footsteps in front of me.

The last time I saw my stranger, he’d turned me downagain. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he doesn’t want me now that Jackson has had me.

But I know that’s not it. He was telling me no long before I gave in to Jackson.

As it is, tonight, I’m not in the mood. Not in the right frame of mind to be sexual with him in any way. The makeup I’m wearing is waterproof because I have a feeling the moment I see him, the tears will start again.

I spend more time crying in his presence than I do anything else. I don’t know why he continues to see me.

My guard holds his hand out for my robe as we get to my door, but I shake my head and wrap my arms around myself. “I’m going to keep it tonight, thank you.”

He gives me a nod, not saying a word, and reaches for the door handle instead.

My stranger is already there, waiting. His full mask isominous as he stands on the other side of the room like he’s been there for a while, watching to see when I’d come through the door.

As soon as our eyes lock, mine tear up, just as I suspected they would. Wordlessly, as if he knew I’d be a mess tonight, his arms open, and I rush across the room into them.

His arms wrap around me awkwardly with the wings in the way, but I hug him tighter anyway, as I cry into his shirt. “What’s wrong now, Little Ember?”

“Everything. Everything I was afraid would happen, did.”

“With your boyfriend?”

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