Page 219 of Rising Heat

“They were there for what happened,” she says. “Not for everything that’s happened in your head since.”

I look away.

“They told me what this was from the beginning.”

“Did they?”

“Yes.”

“They also told you they’d never done this before.”

I don’t answer.

“They told you they didn’t sleep with the women they shared more than once.”

Silence.

“They took you on dates.”

I stare at the rug.

“One date…”

Bex waits another beat before she asks, almost casually,

“Did they tell you they didn’t want you?”

“No.”

“Did they ask you to leave?”

“No.”

“Did they stop reaching out?”

“No.”

She folds her arms.

“Then what happened?”

I open my mouth to defend myself.

“Brett…” I stop, shaking my head. “He spent twenty minutes making me question everything, and then Mack said the one thing that made it all feel true.”

I swallow.

“So I ran.”

I’d spent four days dressing it up as anything but that.

Bex just nods.

“Yeah.”

I stare down at the blanket twisted in my lap. Roxy sighs in her sleep beside us without bothering to open her eyes.

“One shitty night, and I was halfway back to West Chester convincing myself I’d imagined the last few months.”