I stare at him. “Right. Because everyone I do is about you? You’re out of your damn mind.”
Jason smiles, but it’s not charming. It’s condescending. “See that?” he says, stepping closer. “You couldn’t get all fired up without the passion.”
“Oh my god,” I snap. “Get over yourself. This isn’t passion, Jason, it’s revulsion.”
He closes the distance further, and suddenly he’s in my space the way he used to be, the way that used to make my pulse spike and my thoughts blur.
Now, I’m just nauseous.
“Perry,” he says, lowering his voice to something intimate and deliberate, “you ruined my marriage.”
“You did that all by yourself.”
“You obviously still want me. Admit it.”
“I don’t want you, Jason.”
He searches my face as if looking for cracks, as if he expects to see the girl who used to cave under this kind of pressure. “You always wanted me,” he says quietly. “You always came back. You could never say no to me.”
“I was in love with you. Past tense. I’m over it.”
He flinches at that, but recovers quickly. “Then why him?” he demands. “Why my dad?”
“The first time was payback. I’ll admit that. But all the other times? That’s because I fell in love with him.”
He laughs again, harsh and disbelieving. “You’re trying to convince yourself of that.”
“No,” I say evenly. “I’m trying to explain to you in small words that you are no longer the axis of my life.”
His expression hardens, the charm dissolving completely now. “You couldn’t have me, so you went for the next best thing.”
“The next best thing?” I repeat, incredulous. “You are married to my sister! How are you any better than me on that score?”
Jason leans in closer, too close, his voice dropping into that low register he used to weaponize when he wanted control. He whispers, “If you’re over me, why are you shaking, baby?”
The word and the closeness makes me twitch. My hands tremble at my sides, not from him, but from everything else. From Damian walking away. From Amber’s bullshit cruelty. I pull back just enough to look at him. “Because Damian broke my heart, and I can’t stop crying about him.”
For the first time tonight, Jason recoils from me. “You’re serious?”
“Yes!” I am so tired of being misunderstood.
He stares at me like I just confessed to something perverse, stepping back like he needs distance from me. “You’re in love with him?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!”
His expression shifts into something angrier than before. “You did all this,” he says, gesturing vaguely toward the ballroom,where laughter and music still pulse through the walls. “You blew up my reception. You dropped that bomb on him in the middle of my wedding, and you’re telling me you’re in love with him?”
“It wasn’t about you?—”
“It is about me!” he snaps. “It’s my father! My wedding day! My family! How could you do this me?”
“You propositioned me. Don’t pretend to be some virtuous man, Jason. We both know that’s a joke.”
His jaw tightens. “You think this is funny?”
“I thinkyou’rea joke, but this isn’t funny. It’s tragic.”
He shakes his head sharply as his nostrils flare in anger. “You broke up my marriage before it even got through cocktail hour.”
