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“I’m sorry anyway.” He circled a small freckle on my arm with his finger. “What does your dad do?”

“He’s a mechanic. Which means I will never get a new car. He keeps resurrecting the one I have.”

Asher stared at the steering wheel for a moment. “My granddad bought me this car. My parents couldn’t really afford it.”

I wondered if his granddad also paid for his school tuition. “Can your granddad buy me a car?”

“I’ll ask him.”

I smiled. Why was I stalling? Because Iwasa fake, like Dale had accused me of, and I hated that. “I need to tell you something.”

“What is it?” Asher asked, looking at me with those innocent hazel eyes.

Why had the girl online kept up the charade after the café? That seemed strange. Maybe they hadn’t messaged since the in-person meeting? Maybe she’d managed to avoid specific questions when she realized someone else had shown up? But if that was the case, why hadn’t she outed me?

“Who’s Chad, by the way?” he asked before I said anything. “He was asking me all sorts of questions before we left.”

“He was? Like what?”

“Like how long we’d been dating and if I liked you and if we were exclusive.”

My mouth opened in shock and I quickly shut it. “And what did you tell him?”

“I told him we weren’t exclusive but I wanted to be.”

My heart thudded hard in my chest.Oh, calm down, heart, he doesn’t even know you. He’s talking about Gemma.“He’s a coworker. Has been for the last year. What about you? Post-breakup?” I asked, repeating what Brett had said minutes ago. Dale had alsosaid something similar in the café that first day. “Elinor?” That was the name he’d used.

Asher took a deep breath, suddenly interested in looking out the windshield at a large eucalyptus tree. “Did Dale tell you abouther?”

Not in the way he thought. “He didn’t say a lot.”

“We really don’t need to talk about my ex.”

“Oh, come on. I just told you I was abandoned by my mom. Which one of us is more screwed up here?”

He crinkled his nose, then sighed. “When I met you, I mean online, when we first started talking, I’d just been dumped.”

Rebounds are only good in basketball. Never be someone’s rebound.I could see that rule flash through my head in my own handwriting and everything. I shook it away. “How long were you together?”

“About a year.”

Too long. “I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be,” he said. “It was long overdue. We weren’t right for each other, but being dumped just destroys your confidence, you know?”

I actually didn’t know. I hadn’t ever been dumped. I’d never made it to the girlfriend stage of a relationship. “Yeah,” I said.

“I was feeling like maybe I wasn’t right for anyone. And thenwestarted talking and slowly I started feeling better. Then wemet…”

“And I ruined it?” I wasn’t exactly known for helping people feel better about themselves.

“What? No. I felt like myself for the first time in a long time. My point is, I’m glad I met you.”

I needed to rip off the Band-Aid. This was getting worse by the second. “Asher, I’m not—” There was a loud smacking noise on the window and I jumped and let out a squeal. I turned to see Asher’s brother pressing his face against the glass. He had changed clothes and his hair was wet.

“Hey, jerk-off, Mom said you have to take me to In-N-Out!” His voice was muffled through the window.

“I literally asked you if you wanted food on the way home!” Asher yelled back.