She didn’t even look back.
But I did.
And I knew—I was still hers, even if she wasn’t mine.
“Jealous?” a syrupy voice purred beside me.
Bianca.
She curled her perfectly manicured fingers around my arm and leaned in like we were still a thing. “Done slumming? Maybe I’ll consider giving you another shot.”
I flicked her hand off my chest like it burned me. “You couldn’t pay me to relive that mistake.”
She gasped, offended, but I was already storming across the yard. Past the firepit. Past the judgmental stares.
And straight into the wreckage of my own choices.
Jade was still talking to Keiser, but her eyes flicked to mine when I stopped behind her. A glint of something unreadable flashed in her gaze. And pain, I saw it.
“Hey,” I said, voice lower than I meant.
She turned. Cool. Composed. “What, Leo?”
“I—” I swallowed. The truth clawed at my throat. That our time together was the only thing that ever felt real. That I was drowning without her.
But she beat me to it.
“You don’t get to do this,” she whispered, voice shaking. “You broke up with me. You walked away.”
I stepped closer, watching the way her chest rose and fell like she was trying not to cry. “I know.”
“You don’t get to be jealous.”
I cupped her face, couldn’t help it. “I miss you.”
And I kissed her.
It wasn’t smart. It wasn’t careful.
It was everything.
Her mouth met mine with the same ache I felt every second we’d been apart. I wanted to fall into her. Bury myself in everything we were and everything we’d lost.
And then the flashes started.
Phones. Dozens of them.
Gasps. Laughter. The murmurs of gossip reborn.
She pulled away, breathless and wide-eyed.
And I knew what I had to do.
I turned, looked the crowd in the eye, and gave them my best smirk. “Relax. It was just a reminder.”
“Of what?” someone asked.
“That I felt nothing.”
