"Yes!"
"Easy for you to say. Standing here in your Tom Ford suit. Your father working the room. You get to play the perfect Harrington kid while you tell me to blow up my life?"
The words landed like a fist to the sternum.
"At least I came out," I said. Voice tight. "At least I told someone the truth."
Liam's expression shifted. "What?"
"Ethan. This week." I held his gaze. "I told him I'm gay."
Silence.
Something moved behind Liam's eyes—surprise, or relief, something I couldn't fully read.
"I said it out loud," I continued. My voice was shaking. "For the first time in my life. And it didn't destroy me. It didn't end everything. I'm still standing here."
"Alex—"
"So don't tell me I'm not risking anything." I was close enough now to feel his heat. Close enough that if either of us moved an inch, we'd be touching. "Don't tell me I'm playing it safe when you're the one who brought your girlfriend to a team event because you're too scared to face what you actually want."
"And what do I want?" Barely above a whisper.
"Me." The word came out broken. "You want me. You've wanted wanted me. Since we rowed that double and you said it felt like flying. Since we hooked up in my dorm and you couldn't stop looking at me like I was something you'd been starving for."
"Stop."
"Why? Because it's true?"
"Because Ican't." His voice cracked open. "Choosing you means coming out to my team. To Coach Hale. To my mom. It means everyone knowing. It means risking my scholarship, my future—everything I've worked for."
"I know."
"And for what?" Tears were bright in his eyes now. "For a guy who walked away from me once already?"
The accusation hung between us like something with weight.
"I apologized for that," I said. Quiet now. "I told you I regretted it. That I've thought about you every day since."
"And nothing changed." His eyes were too bright. "You're still here. I'm still there. We're still on opposite sides of a river we can't cross."
"We crossed it Thursday."
"That was rowing."
"Was it? Because it felt like everything we've been pretending doesn't exist."
"Alex—"
"What do you actually want?" I demanded. "Not what's safe. Not what makes sense. What do youwant?"
His breathing was ragged. "I want—"
I didn't let him finish.
Fuck this.
I kissed him.
