Page 53 of The Fine Line
“What are the other reasons?”
“What?”
“Earlier. You said you liked that I’m not good at taking instructions. What are the other reasons you like me?”
“Oh,” Carly falters. “Well… you’re really hot? And good at hockey?”
I press my lips together. “Anything else?”
“...Rhett, are you okay?”
Of course I am.
So why can’t I say it?
“Do you want to come over?” I ask instead.
“Oh… I don’t know. Sorry. I don’t think I can tonight.”
“Why not?”
“Well… to be honest, I think I’m staying with someone else.”
“What?” I straighten, the world tilting. “What do you mean? Like… with a girl friend?”
She laughs softly. “No, not like a girl friend, Sutty.”
I slide down the wall, sitting.
“Sutty?”
“You called me your man,” I murmur.
“Well, yeah…” she trails off. “But we’re not, like, exclusive or anything.”
“We’re not?”
She laughs again. She thinks I’m joking.
“Everyone knows you don’t date Rhett Sutton.”
My throat tightens. “They do?”
The background noise picks up—voices, music.
“Sorry, Sutty, gotta go. Talk to you later.”
She hangs up.
I drop my head to my knees. Exhale a long, hollow breath.
Barely a beat passes before I hear a voice.
“Well, I thought you knew how to party.”
I lift my head. A girl from inside stands a few feet away, twirling her hair, sipping her drink.
“I do,” I say.
