Page 173 of Playing Dirty

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Then:

“Yes,” I said.

That landed heavier than anything else tonight.

Rowan

The silence after that felt different.

Not tense.

Not awkward.

Just… honest.

I sat on the edge of the desk this time.

Not my bed.

Not his space.

Middle again.

That pattern was starting to bother me.

“You don’t trust anything, do you?” I asked.

“I trust things,” he said.

“What things.”

“Patterns,” he replied.

That made me tilt my head slightly.

“That’s not trust,” I said.

“It is for me.”

Of course it was.

I exhaled slowly.

“You realise that makes everything harder,” I said.

“I know.”

“And you don’t care?”

That made him look at me properly again.

Longer this time.

“No,” he said.

Then, after a beat:

“I care. I just don’t let it change how I operate.”

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