Barely hearing him.
All I can think is —
I need you so much, Ro.
Three days ago.
My window. The dark. His voice going rough at the edges like it cost him something.
And now —
Abby.
I glance at myself in the mirror across the room.
Brown hair. Brown eyes.
I think about the way he described her.
Red hair. Green eyes. Laughing so hard she couldn’t run.
I think about the way he looked on the roof — open, warm, real — and whether she gets that version of him too.
Whether she gets the one I thought was mine.
I look away from the mirror.
• • •
We end up lying next to each other.
Close.
Too close.
I’m so aware of the heat of him.
The way his arm is almost touching mine.
The way he breathes.
I stare at the ceiling, blinking hard, trying to hold it together.
“Hey,” he says quietly.
I don’t answer.
“Ro?”
“What?” It comes out harsher than I mean.
A pause.
And then —
I feel it.
His eyes on me.
