Page 116 of Falling Like Snow

Ellis stills. She squints at me like she’s trying to figure something out.

I squirm under the scrutiny. “What?”

She throws her arms in the air. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”

Aunt Annie, Mom, and I jump at her outburst.

She paces the floor. “I’m not sure if you’re in denial or if you’re being deliberately obtuse, but you are Asher’s whole world. He adores you—”

“As a friend,” I say, cutting her off.

“How do you know?” she yells.

I glance at our moms sitting silently, eyes jumping between the two of us.

“He said he wanted me to be happy with Micah,” I tell them. “He took Daphne to the Snow Ball. He likes her. And now he wants space from me.”

“He said that? That he wants space?” Mom asks, incredulous.

I nod, then hide my face in my hands. “I don’t know how this happened!”

“I know you’ve refused to believe it, but I think it’s been happening,” Ellis says. “I think… I think maybe you’ve buried your feelings for him, and the idea of him liking Daphne might have ruptured that delusional bubble you were living in.”

Mom shrugs, like Ellis doesn’t sound completely deranged right now. “Maybe you were trying to protect your heart since Dad died…”

“Maybe you never had to acknowledge the feelings because no one had ever come between you before now,” Aunt Annie adds.

My jaw drops. “Oh my god! You guys are ridiculous! Do you hear yourselves?”

The three women stare at me again, saying nothing.

Maybe seeing the potential between him and Daphne did wake me up to the fear of losing him to someone else. Maybe kissing him made me realize I wanted to kiss him again, made me realize how wildly attracted I am to him. But I would have known if, deep down, I’d always had feelings for him. I would have recognized the insufferable longing I feel now. Surely, I would have—

“Sloane,” Ellis says, interrupting my realization that I’ve had plenty of occasions where he’s unsettled me over the years, with the slightest touch or the quickest glance or the smallest smile. And every time, I ignored it, squashing it like it meant nothing. “You have to tell him. If he wants space from you anyway, you might as well. You owe it to yourself to try.”

“What? No. I can’t.”

I turn to Mom, and she offers me a soft smile. “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.”

“Okay, that phrase applies to, like, seeing a celebrity in public and asking for a selfie or requesting a promotion or extra dessert—not to telling your best friend you are madly in love with him!”

All three of them freeze.

“Oh my god,” Ellis whispers.

Mom’s eyes tear up again. “You’re in love with him?”

I groan and bury my hands in my face. “I don’t know.”

“You do know,” Ellis says. “Those words tumbled out of you so easily. Sloane, respectfully, get off your ass and go to the party. Tell him.”

“What if it ruins everything?” I ask quietly.

“What if it doesn’t? What if it opens new doors?” Aunt Annie says. She glances at Ellis, who smiles at her, and I get the feeling this isn’t the first time my aunt’s had a what if conversation.

Ellis walks briskly to my end of the couch and forces herself into the nonexistent space between me and the arm, practically sitting in my lap.

“Listen,” she says, her face tense but her eyes soft, “you two are the most inexplicably connected people I’ve ever met, and there is no way either of you would let feelings ruin your friendship.”