Page 95 of The Ruse

“So, what did you need?”Elyse asked after she closed the door behind us.

“Oh, I…” I reached for her script that I’d rolled up and put in my back pocket, trying to push away the flashbacks of Bailee and all the time we’d spent together in this very room. “I was just bringing you this.”

“Oh, thanks.” She took it from me. “I forgot I left it in your room.”

“Yeah, the fire alarm kind of messed things up last night.”

Her eyes widened, and I realized it probably sounded like I was suggesting the fire alarm had messed up the kiss I’d almost given her.

“I mean—” I cleared my throat. “—we left in such a hurry, so of course you couldn’t grab it.”

“Yeah. Safety first.” She rocked back on her heels, and we stared at each other for an awkward moment. Was she thinking about that almost kiss? Or maybe the other kisses we’d actually had?

I shook my head. She probably wasn’t thinking about any of those things. She was probably wondering why the heck I was just standing in her room now that I’d delivered her script back to her.

Which meant that right now was probably the time to ask if I could be her escort.

But since it was awkward just bringing it up when we’d never even talked about the debutante ball before, I found myself asking her instead, “So, how wasThe Phantom?”

“The musical?”

“Uh, yeah…” Did she think I was referring to Nash as “The Phantom” since he was playing him? Because, sorry, I was still too petty to give him that title when I’d initially wanted that role for myself. “That’s the show you went to tonight, right?”

“Yes, of course.” She set her script on her desk.

Bailee’s desk.

I forced the thought away. It was so weird being in here again.

“It was good,” she said. “Really, really good actually.”

“That’s good.” I swallowed the excess saliva in my mouth.

Okay, just ask her and leave, I told myself.Just because you spent a lot of time in this room with a girl who might be dead doesn’t mean you need to focus on it.

My gaze caught on the top corner of her window. Was the moon-and-stars sticker still there? The one Bailee and I had stuck there the night we’d ordered pizza to her room, pigged out on candy, and played games all night.

The sticker that was supposed to symbolize that even when things were hard, we’d always be there for each other. Just like the moon and stars were always there even if you couldn’t see them behind the clouds.

I tore my gaze away from the window. I didn’t need to look for signs of Bailee in this room. It was Elyse and Ava’s room now. It had their things in it.

Though, was that Bailee’s same bed and dresser, too? Had they left all the same furniture in here when they’d cleaned her things out?

I rubbed the back of my neck. And I must have had a look of panic in my eyes or something because Elyse asked, “Is everything okay, Asher? You seem a little off right now.”

Yeah, I bet I am.

Should I tell her? Or would that just make things weird?

I’d kept so much of Bailee’s and my relationship a secret. Would it do any good to talk about it now?

But when I met Elyse’s golden-brown eyes, I found myself wanting to talk about the things I’d never been able to talk about before.

“Sorry.” I leaned my back against her closed door and ran a hand through my hair. “I’m just having a lot of memories hit me all at once.”

“You are?” She furrowed her brow like she didn’t understand why I’d suddenly go down memory lane.

“I just…” I let out a long breath. “I kind of spent a lot of time in this room last year.”

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