Page 28 of Counterpoint and Harmony

He shakes his head slowly, his arms crossed over his chest. “No. Your hair’s fine. It’s just …”

“What?” I prompt when he trails off and doesn’t seem like he’ll finish his thought.

One shoulder lifts along with a corner of his mouth, but his smile looks rueful. “I thought you wore glasses. It’s weird to see you without them, and obviously you don’t need them. I thought we had that in common, but I guess it’s one more thing that I believed that wasn’t really true.”

My breath leaves me in a gust, his last sentence hitting me like a punch in the gut and paralyzing my diaphragm. After what feels like an eternity with his eyes all dark and sad staring into me, I manage to suck in a breath. “It was part of trying to blend in. Make me look different so no one would recognize me. That’s all,” I finally say softly.

He nods. “Yeah. That makes sense.” His eyes travel over me. “It’s just … strange. You’re so different. But at the same time, you’re almost the same.”

“I am the same.”

He studies me again for another long moment, one side of his mouth hitching in a sad, crooked smile. “No,” he says at last. “You’re not.”

I look away, squeezing my eyes shut, uncertain what to say to that. I’ve already defended myself to him a million times. And still he’s throwing it in my face.

His hand slides over my shoulder, then the bed dips as he sits down beside me. “Charlie, look at me.”

Blinking a few more times to try to clear all the tears, I steel myself before looking him in the eyes again, doing my best to keep my game face on.

He lets out a grunt. “Don’t do that. Don’t shut me out like that. I hate when you do that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That face. That’s your Charlotte James face. That’s the face you wear when you deflect and avoid instead of being yourself.”

I stare at him, not sure what to do now. “I don’t know what you want from me, Damian. I thought we were moving past what happened, or at least trying to, but if you can’t let it go, then …”

He shakes his head. “No, Charlie. That’s not what I meant. It’s just …” His eyes slide away from mine, and he lets out a frustrated sigh. “It just hit me that you don’t actually need glasses. I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad. But now all those times when you’d take them off and seem to forget about them make a lot more sense.” He tries for a smile, but it doesn’t really work.

I nod, staring at my fingers as I twist them together in my lap.

He moves, drawing my attention as he sits on the edge of the bed and takes off his glasses to scrub his hands over his face. “I’m fucking this all up, aren’t I?”

“No. If that’s how you feel, I mean, I hoped, but … you’re entitled to your feelings. It’s just frustrating to me, because I feel like every time we take a step forward, something happens that knocks us two steps back. And now you have class, and a test, and”—I glance at the app on my phone—“your car is going to be here in two minutes, so you need to get downstairs.”

He replaces his glasses and stands, shoving his hands in his pockets as he looks down at me. “You are different, Charlie. In a lot of ways. You’re more confident now than you were when we first met. You fired your mom, for one thing. And you’ve taken control of your life, which is what you’ve been wanting for a long time. That was part of why you came to Marycliff, but you were hiding there. You’re not hiding now. And I want to get to know you now, all of you, not just the parts you let me see before.”

My breath stutters in my chest, the clash of his words with what I was just thinking making my head spin. I swallow convulsively, trying to control myself enough to respond. “Oh,” I say dumbly, the only thing that comes out.

Damian gives me a crooked smile, then bends down and gives me another kiss, his tongue tasting me all too briefly before he pulls away. “I hate that I have to leave right now.” He’s still bent over so we’re eye to eye. “I’m glad you came. How long are you here?”

“Just the one night. I have to get back. I already rescheduled my meeting with my producer that I was supposed to have this morning. We’re meeting at six tonight instead.”

His eyebrows jump up. “That late?”

I shrug. “He’s a night owl. Says he works best at night anyway. He was actually kinda happy that we didn’t have to meet at nine.”

Damian chuckles. “Call me later. Okay? Tell me all about it then.”

“Okay.”

My hand goes behind his head, and I pull him in for one more goodbye kiss. “I’ll miss you,” I whisper against his lips.

“I’ll miss you too,” he whispers back before he stands. I walk him to the door of the suite, wishing I could walk him all the way downstairs, but that’s not a good idea.

“Talk to you tonight,” I say just before shutting the door behind him.

“Tonight.” And then he’s gone.

---