Page 46 of Beyond the Hate

She stares at me for a long moment and I can practically see the wheels turning in her mind. After a while, she shakes her head. “No.”

I finally have her where I want her. I’m not letting her retreat. I palm her face. “Please, Lace. Tell me why you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.”

“Liar.” I kiss her nose. “If you don’t tell me, I can’t convince you you’re wrong.”

“You can’t convince me I’m wrong anyway.”

This is my chance. “Prove it.” Paisley loves to prove things. And she can’t resist a challenge.

“I can’t believe you don’t remember.” She huffs.

I squeeze her hips. “Don’t remember what?”

“Our date.”

She glares at me and I search my memory but I come up blank. “Our date?”

Her nostrils flare. “This is what I mean. You don’t remember.”

How can I not remember a date with Paisley? “Remind me, please.”

“I asked you to the movies. You said yes. You never showed up. End of story.”

It’s obviously not the end of the story or she wouldn’t have spent the past decade hating me. “How can I not…” I trail off when a glimpse of a memory hits me. “Wait. Was this our first semester senior year?”

She nods.

“I remember we agreed to go to the movies. But I didn’t go because I had to work. I got an extra shift last minute at the amusement park. I texted you.”

Her lips purse. “Obviously not.”

I scour my memory. “Oh shit. I forgot. My phone died and the message didn’t go through.”

“I stood near the concession stand waiting for you for an hour. My evil stepsisters thought it was hilarious. They still haven’t stopped teasing me about it.”

I palm her face. “I’m sorry, Paisley. I didn’t realize the message hadn’t gone through until the next day. When I approached you at school to explain, you brushed me off. I thought it wasn’t a big deal to you.”

“What did you expect me to do? Cry and rant in front of the entire student population?”

“Instead, you pretended it didn’t matter. Acted like our friendship meant nothing to you.”

“And you dubbed me Paisley the Perpetual Know It All.”

I cringe. “I never should have called you that name. I was hurt and lashing out. I’m sorry. And I’m sorry I didn’t show up for our date. When I realized the message hadn’t gone through, I should have insisted on explaining myself to you. I was afraid you didn’t care.”

“And then you forgot all about it.”

I squeeze her neck. “I forced it out of my mind since I didn’t want to know the girl I had a crush on didn’t care enough about me to get mad I ghosted her. Will you forgive me for being an asshole?”

She sighs. “I don’t want to forgive you but you’ve proven you’re not an asshole. You offered me this space for the brewery, you bring me coffee every morning. I just wish you’d told me you had to work the night of our date.”

“I should have, but I’m a fucking idiot.”

“Don’t expect me to disagree.”

I bark out a laugh.

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