Page 32 of Sincerely, Your Enemy

TJ drops the textbook at his side. “Don’t lie to me, Mattson. You’re fucking blushing.”

I clear my throat. “Can we just get back to it?”

“A year?” he says quietly, as though the mere thought of going that long without any action is blasphemous.

“Will you drop it?” I fume, my pulse increasing when he scoots even closer to me on the couch.

“Fuck me. It’s been more than a year?”

He’s not going to let it go, is he?

“Lacey…” My name on his lips just might be the most disarming sound I’ve ever heard. It makes me want to spill all of my darkest, deepest secrets to him.

“Fine. But if you give me any shit for it whatsoever, this thing we’re doing is done, you got me? You can forget about me helping you stay on the team, and I’ll never?—”

“I promise,” he gives in quickly.

I might regret this.

“A year and a half.”

It’s not that big of a deal. To me, at least. But to him? You’d think I just told him his entire family’s been put on death row.

“How?” is all he says.

“What?”

“Just… fuckinghow?” he repeats, dark eyes assessing me like I’m some sort of anomaly science should study further. “Look at you. You’re so…”

“I’m so what?”

He hesitates for a little while.

“So—”

The front door opening interrupts him.

“Aaron! Stop! We’re not even inside,” a high-pitched voice squeals.

“Who cares?” a deep voice, probably Aaron’s, answers.

What sounds like passionate kissing travels through the house. TJ and I make eye contact, and I know we share the exact same train of thought.

Well, this isawkward.

TJ clears his throat to alert Aaron and his girl of our presence and then opens and shuts the textbook in his hands as loudly as he can. There’s a wall between the entrance and the living room, so they can’t see us.

That seems to do the trick because the kissing stops on cue.

“I thought no one was home,” I hear Aaron whisper.

He appears in the doorway just seconds later, Heather standing behind him with smeared lipstick and disheveled hair.

Aaron’s eyes find me in an instant, but his brain seems to need a few minutes to catch up because his expression changes drastically once he realizes what’s happening.

The girl he went on a date with and then ghosted just heard him making out with the girl he chose over her.

We’re not dating or anything, so he doesn’t owe me an explanation, but man, I can’t remember the last time I felt this disappointed.

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