Pouring everything I couldn't say into the press of my mouth against his—every conversation we'd avoided, every loaded silence, every night I'd spent staring at my ceiling wanting something I'd told myself I couldn't have.
For half a second, he froze.
Then he kissed me back.
His hands were in my hair. My back hitting the wall—the brick rough through my shirt. Bodies pressed together like we were trying to eliminate the concept of space between us.
This was nothing like the boat rack. That had been anger and confusion and fear.
This was want. Pure and simple and terrifying in its clarity.
His mouth opened under mine. I tasted mint and something sharp—whiskey from the bar. My hands found his waist, pulling him closer, needing him closer, and he came willingly, his body pressing mine into the wall with a desperate urgency that told me everything his words hadn't.
He made a sound low in his throat that went straight through me—my name, half-formed, breaking apart before it was finished.
"Alex," he breathed against my mouth.
"Don't." I kissed him again. "Don't think. Don't choose. Just—"
A voice.
"Liam?"
We broke apart.
Emily was standing at the end of the hallway.
Her face—
The sequence played across her features in slow motion. Confusion—and then devastation—complete, total, the kind that rewrites everything you thought you knew about your own life.
Three seconds. That's all it took.
"Oh my god."
Her voice was barely a whisper.
"Emily—" Liam started.
"It's him." She looked between us. Eyes filling. "It's been him this whole time."
"No, it's not—"
"Don't lie to me!" Her voice cracked. Broke. "I saw you. Both of you. Isaw—"
She stopped. Hand over her mouth.
"Emily, please—"
She looked at me. Eyes furious and hurt and knowing—the specific clarity of someone who finally understands the shape of the lie they've been living inside.
"You knew," she said. "You knew he had a girlfriend and you still—"
"I'm sorry," I said. Meaning it. "I'm so sorry."
"No, you're not." Her voice was steady now despite the tears. "Neither of you are. You're just sorry you got caught."
She turned to Liam.
