“I booked a flight.”
My fingers tightened around the mug. “Back to Miami?”
“No.”
He finally looked up.
I wished he hadn’t.
His face was calm in the worst possible way. Not angry. Not wild. Not even hurt on the surface. Just closed. Like he had packed everything already except the body.
“Colorado,” he said. “Jace’s family has a place outside Vail. He told me if I ever needed to disappear over break, I could. So I’m going.”
I stared at him.
The room tilted slightly.
“For Christmas?”
“And New Year’s.”
New Year’s.
The word cut deeper than it should have.
The date I had picked. The midnight line I had drawn so confidently when this all felt manageable. When Drew was a weapon and a distraction and the most dangerous fake boyfriend on campus, but not yet the man sitting on my bed with his whole face shut down.
“Drew,” I whispered.
He looked down at the box.
“I guess our arrangement quits a little early.”
The coffee mug shook in my hand.
I set it on the dresser before I dropped it.
“Arrangement,” I repeated.
His mouth twitched.
Not a smile.
A wound pretending it had teeth.
“That’s what it is, right?”
“No.”
His eyes lifted.
I hated how fast I said it.
Not because it wasn’t true.
Because it was too late and too small and I could hear the panic in my own voice.
“No?” he asked quietly.
