Page 196 of The Fake Date Agreement

The echo of Marc’s proposal fills my head to overflowing. I’d burst it like a balloon if it would release the pressure.

“Tobie,” he says, still on his knees, one hand grasping mine. That gigantic diamond glints on my finger. I don’t remember him taking it from the velvet box and putting it on me.

“Say something,” Marc softly orders.

What do you say to a man who was the center of your world for years?

A man who just slipped a ring on your finger, giving you the thing you always thought you wanted?

“I don’t love you anymore.” It’s only when I met Reid, Caleb, and Javier that I realized how hollow the life we shared was.

The corners of his eyes pinch. “Tobie?—”

I pull the ring off my finger and offer it to him. “Give this to someone you want to marry, not someone you suddenly want because you can’t have them anymore.”

When he doesn’t take the ring, I drop it and walk away.

He follows me out, the ring in his hand, and it’s clear he doesn’t believe me.

“They don’t love you, Tobie.”

I barely notice the doorman, who swings open the door as I pass him to get outside.

Marc circles my wrist and draws me back, blue eyes pleading with me to reconsider. “But I do.”

I lift my face to him, and I don’t see love in his eyes. I just see a need to win. “Should I marry you because I can’t be with them?”

He doesn’t respond.

I pull my arm from his loose grip and walk down the steps, get the first cab, and turn my cell phone off.

The campus is almost empty of students when the cab parks outside my dorm. I ask the driver to wait ten minutes. Students have already left for spring break, including Max, and I desperately wish she were here.

I keep my head down, slipping off my shoes when I’m inside my dorm and gripping the hem of my dress as I jog up the stairs to get to my room.

I strip and change into sweats. I leave everything on the floor, my focus on stuffing everything I think I might need into my bag.

It doesn’t take me long.

I’m out of my room and sliding into the backseat of the cab ten minutes later.

And at the airport thirty minutes after that.

Now I’m here.

Knock. Knock.

It takes a second for the lights to flicker on. They start from the top and work their way down. So does the soft creak of footsteps on the staircase.

The door swings open.

I take in my dad’s sleep-weary face, and I stop holding everything in.

I burst into tears.

He doesn’t say a word. He just opens his arms wide, drawing me against his chest and giving me all the love I’ve ached for.

That I came home for.

---