Page 24 of Austen Persuaded

Not since I ended a relationship with the man who’d been head over heels in love with me. The man who was everything good in a person—the man I had never deserved. The man I couldn’t forget … the one whose love I couldn’t put out of my mind, couldn’t erase from my body’s memory, couldn’t eradicate from my dreams.

“Kylan,” I said hoarsely. I rarely allowed myself to eventhinkhis name, much less say it aloud.

My fingers were shaky as I unlocked my phone screen and swiped to the Instagram icon, which I’d hidden on a distant home screen that I rarely used. My fingers hovered just above the screen, over the icon.

This is a mistake.

I should delete Instagram. Or unfollow him.

But my fingers apparently had a mind of their own, tapping to open the app.

After a brief moment of mindless scrolling in which I convinced myself that was all I’d do, I sighed heavily. I might as well just do what IknewI was going to end up doing: Go to his profile. Look for updates.

Taking one more shot for courage, I typed his name in the search and opened his page.

No new photos. The most recent one was from last week, from the airport.

Does that mean he’s still here? Or he just didn’t feel the need to announce his return?

The latter was more likely. He wasn’t the kind of guy who posted constant updates to narrate his life; in fact, his posts were infrequent and typically didn’t reveal much about his life. This was both a relief and a frustration, of course.

Feeling a little disappointed by the lack of new photos, I then noticed the videos section on his profile.

Two recent videos, from this past weekend actually.

Did I dare watch them?

Yes.

No!

I flopped down on the bed, my breathing faster as I imagined seeing a video of him.

It could be, like, his dog. Or his dinner. Or a sunset. Or a girlfriend.

My stomach churned.

Or it could just be … him.

The room was spinning now. I squeezed my eyes shut to block it out: the room, the phone, him. Especially him.

Chapter 7

“Annie, I resent this cliché BFF role you’re making us play, but you’re getting up. And out. Now,” Rafael screamed as he barged into my room.

I felt around for a pillow to put over my head and moaned. “Shhh, don’t yell.”

When Rainn laugh-screamed right in my ear, I opened my eyes to tell him to back off, but he was several feet away.

Opening my eyes was a mistake.

Pain.

“Here, we brought coffee.”

“Oh, I—” I started before clearing my dry throat. “Thanks, but I’m just going to stay—”

“Oh no you don’t,” Rafael said in a booming voice. His hands were on my upper arms this time, gently pulling me up into a sitting position. He was strong for such a lithe form as his, but then, balletwasone of the most physically demanding forms of exercise. “You’re getting out of this room if we have to kidnap you. You’ve done your wallowing. You excelled at it. A-plus. It’s over now.Fini.”