I am preserving my dignity.
By running away like the chick who dies first in a horror movie?
Yes.
Asher! Talk to me. This doesn’t have to be weird.
To what are you referring?
We kissed! It’s not a big deal.
Can’t talk. I’m training my dragon.
I laugh loud enough that the nurse beside me shoots me a weird look.
I hold up my phone. “Doctor Foley’s making jokes.”
She nods likeof course, dawning a smile and a little twinkle in her eye.
See? Everyone loves the guy. But he will not distract me with humor. At my next break between cases, I march outside and snap a few pictures of the ducks on the pond, sending one his way.
Let’s see you avoid this, Foley.
Unfair
My kryptonite.
I took more. I’ll send them if you stop being awkward.
On a scale of 1–10, how cute are they?
13
Ughhhhh
Fine
I kissed you. You rejected me. I’ll forget it happened.
Happy?
I send him the rest of the photos as a reward, but something about the wordrejectedleaves an acidic tang on the back of my tongue. Is that what he thinks I did?
Is that what I did?
By the simplest definition, yes, I did reject him, but... it’s more complicated than that. He understands why I did it, right?
I didn’t reject you. I was trying to protect you.
I don’t need an explanation, Joss.
It’s over and done. Let’s move on.
Okay.
Let’s move on.
That night, close to 2:00 a.m., I wake in my bed from a nightmare about Asher. I was stuck in the attic of my childhood home, unable to do anything but watch as the rising gray water threatened to drown my family. But instead of my parents, it was Asher trying to save the couple across the street. And instead of elderly strangers, the couple was Geoff and Yayoi.
