The Hardest Fall

“I smell pizza. Is it pizza? Did you have pizza?”

This time she was running toward me, or more like the pizza box right in front of me, and the expression on her face—priceless. When she finally made it, she didn’t waste a second before she tore into the box…only, I’d already eaten pretty much all of it and there was only one slice left.

Again, her face when she realized it was all gone—priceless, and cute as fuck. Turned out she could pull off a mean face better than I expected.

“You ate it all? This is all you left me?” she asked slowly, big eyes staring down at the empty box.

I raised an eyebrow. “I was really hungry. Didn’t you eat on your date, anyway?” I hadn’t meant to mention her date at all, but apparently I was still stuck on that.

She scrunched up her nose and the appalled look on her face disappeared, leaving sad, sad eyes. “He couldn’t make it.”

My brows drawing together, I checked my watch, just to make sure. “It’s a little past ten, Zoe—don’t tell me you waited for him for two hours.”

She blew out her cheeks and dropped down on the couch behind her.

“He said he might be late but would try to make it.” She gave me a half-hearted shrug as if to say it was okay, but her facial expressions were so easy to read. Anyone could see that it wasn’t okay.

Worthless son of a bitch.

“You didn’t have anything to eat while waiting for him?”

She rubbed her temple. “The restaurant wasn’t anywhere near campus, and it was a fancy place. I didn’t feel like having anything on their menu—didn’t wanna spend over fifty dollars for a few spoonfuls of pasta. Also, I’m not good at eating by myself at restaurants, or anywhere really. It feels like everyone is looking at me and collectively thinking, Oh, poor girl. So, short answer to your question: nope, I didn’t have anything to eat.”

There were a few things I could’ve gone after in her speech, but I chose to focus on one thing and one thing only while fishing for more. “Your boyfriend is a college student and he can afford fancy restaurants, huh? I guess I can see why you would have trouble ending it.”

Just like that, I’d screwed up. I didn’t know what had pushed my buttons exactly, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew I had fucked up—big time.

Her brows inched up to her hairline and she met my eyes—a rare occurrence—then tilted her head.

“Wow.”

Placing both her palms on the couch, she pushed herself up. The pizza forgotten, she continued to hold my eyes as she stared down at me.

“Wow, Dylan. I don’t expect you to know me in a month, or however many weeks you’ve been here—hell, we barely see each other some days—but…actually, you know what? Maybe I did. Maybe I did think you’d figure out at least that much. I’m the last person who’d date someone for the amount in his bank account.”

Having trouble taking my eyes off of her, I flinched at her words. When she moved to storm past me, I caught her wrist and got up.

She stopped, but she didn’t look at me. She didn’t even tell me to let go of her.

Her complicated situation had officially started to fuck with my head. If only I knew for sure that it wasn’t…

“I’m sorry, Zoe. You’re right, and I’m an asshole. Of course I know you’re not like that. Of course I do.” I softened my grip on her wrist and snaked my fingers around hers. “I’m sorry. If it’ll make you feel any better, you can insult me too.”

She hesitated before sending a quick glance at me. “You really ate the whole thing?” Of all the things she could’ve said, she went with that.

“You’re not gonna bust my balls?”

She slipped her hand out of mine and rubbed her palm on the side of her dress.

“What am I supposed to insult you with? Gee, your body is so ugly, you’re ruining my view every damn morning? How pathetic does that sound? I don’t have anything on you—at least not yet—but I’m pretty sure I’ll remember this and say something when the time is right, when you’re least expecting it, of course.”

I smiled at her. She liked watching me work out in the mornings. I already knew that since she came out and found things to do while I was busy with my sit-ups and push-ups, but hearing it from her confirmed what I’d already guessed. My smile slowly morphed into the biggest grin.

“What now?” she snapped.

“I hope you won’t break my heart too much, Zoe Clarke.”

“Only as much as you broke mine, thinking I’d be interested in someone because of their bank account.”

That wiped the smile clear off my face.