The Revenge Games Duet

“I was wrong,” I admit. “We were both wrong.”

“I did what I had to do.”

“Honestly Logan, you don’t make it easy to forgive you!” The anger comes out of nowhere, perhaps from the built up fear and the unknown. I hate that I want him so much.

“Why?” He turns around and faces me, eyes blazing and full of pain. “Because I fucking love you and you couldn’t see that. You were happy to continue tormenting me with your fictional relationship.”

“But I told you—”

“Yeah... yeah... heard it a million times. You’re contractually obliged to star in the show. I guess I’m the fool for thinking the smallest part of you felt the same.”

“You don’t think I feel the same? You don’t think I love you?” I grab my cell and dial the number of the head of the network—Jeffrey Marsh. It goes straight to his secretary, so I place her on speaker phone.

“Mr. Marsh is no longer with the company.”

“Huh?”

“He was dismissed today.”

“Well then, tell me who I need to speak to regarding my contract?”

“I’m not sure, Miss Chase.”

I hang up and call Cliff. “Cliff, I’m done with the show. I don’t care what it costs me to get out of my contract, I’m willing to pay whatever even if that means every last dollar I have.”

“Are you out of your mind, Chase?” he yells into the receiver.

“I’ve never been saner.” I hang up the call and will deal with the ramifications later. “No more excuses. That’s it. Now what?”

“God, Emmy. It’s more than that.”

“Then what is it?” I drag out in pure frustration, throwing my hands in the air.

“There’s no turning back with us. We’re either all in now or nothing. We can’t ever go back to the way we were... friends or whatever you call it.”

“I know that,” I tell him. “You’re part of my family. You always have been. And now I know why. This was in the cards all along, we just needed to play the game in order to realize what we’d be willing to give up. We both lost, but we can both win.”

This is it.

All or nothing.

My heart’s pounding so hard, ready to combust from the pressure of waiting for him to decide. If he tells me he’s not in, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want him right now and that frightens me.

His head is bowed, eyes closed with his mouth tight. I watch him anxiously, the way his hands slowly open and unleash the tight fists he’s been holding. The base of his jaw lifts until his eyes mirror mine, the desperation matching my own. He moves his body in front of me, raising his hand to touch my cheek, and the second it does the spark between us stills our troubled hearts.

“I meant what I said,” he murmurs with the air escaping his lips. “No turning back. All or nothing. Marriage, babies... that whole growing-old-together thing.” He gets down on one knee and runs his fingertip from my stomach down my thigh until it stops at the scar on my knee.

“Wait,” I whisper, unsure as my heart accelerates from his actions. “Is this a proposal?”

He shakes his head with a beautiful smile. “No. Trust me, if I propose marriage there’ll be fucking fireworks and you’ll be crying like a baby.”

“I don’t cry like a baby,” I tell him with a pout, easing the nerves.

“When I pushed you off the zip-line that day, I wanted you to soar. You always amazed me with your fearless attitude. So, when I saw you scared for the first time, I was sad. It wasn’t you, and I’ll be damned to see you become that person. This is who you are… you take risks and sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don’t.”

I fall to my knees at eye level with him, wrapping my arms around his neck, desperate to close the gap between us. “You scarred me that day. A piece of you always on me. I should have known.”

“Neither one of us knew, but it doesn’t matter we know now.”