Page 46 of The Ruse

She watched me for a moment, as if checking to make sure I was going to cooperate with her. I must have looked repentant enough because she slowly lowered her hand and said, “Okay, so I’m going to do the talking and you are going to listen.”

I pressed my lips together obediently and nodded.

She sighed and tried to take a step back but bumped against the washing machine. “Can I get just a little more space?” She made a “scoot back” motion with her hands.

And being the gentleman that I was not, I only scooted back three inches.

She looked like she wanted to comment on my inability to follow directions, but she shook her head instead. “Now that you have your listening ears on, I just wanted to make sure you understood that what happened tonight on the porch was a big misunderstanding.” She looked up at me to make sure I really was paying attention. “I was supposed to meet Nash outside, but I made a mistake and confused you for him. What happened because of that was…”

“Mind blowing,” I filled in for her when she paused, unable to help myself.

“No.” She glared at me. “I was going to say it was unfortunate.”

Unfortunate?

Really?

“Are you sure about that?” I asked. “Because I—”

She held up a finger to my lips, stopping me from finishing my rebuttal. “Yes, it was an unfortunate mistake, and I’m sorry if I confused you and made you think I kissed you on purpose.”

Those words chaffed a little because yes, I had in fact thought she’d meant that kiss for me.

You know, right up until the moment she stepped away in horror and asked who I was.

Did I feel like an idiot for kissing her back, now that I was on this side of that kiss?

Yes.

A really big one.

But in that quiet moment when she had asked if she’d read all of the signs wrong, using that tender voice of hers, I couldn’t turn her away.

I had to kiss her.

If for no other reason than to keep her from believing anyone wouldn’t want to kiss her.

It didn’t make sense since we’d only met a week ago, but apparently, I was still in love with myselfjust enoughto believe that someone like Elyse could experience love—or in the very least, lust—at first sight with someone like me.

I mean, if no one else was going to love me, at least I could still love myself, right?

I’d simply missed the part where she hadn’t known it was me at all.

She looked at me like she was expecting a response, and so I said, “I get it. You like Nash.”

“Yes, I like Nash.” She nodded. “And only Nash.”

AKA, I definitely don’t haveanyfeelings for you, Asher.

Who knew that a girl so sweet could be so great at demolishing my ego.

I was about to leave before she could say anything to make it even more clear that she would never kiss me on purpose when she asked, “Why were you outside, anyway? Did you overhear Cambrielle and me on the bus and decided to interfere?”

I wished that was what had happened. I’d feel a lot less stupid and rejected right now if I had planned this whole thing out.

But too tired to lie, I pinched the bridge of my nose and said, “No, I didn’t know about your plans. I got a call from my aunt who needed to confirm some plans for winter break and took the call outside.” I reached for my phone in my back pocket. “I can show you my call log if you need proof.”

“No, that’s okay.” She pushed my phone back when I tried to hand it to her. “I guess it was a wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time sort of thing.”

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