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“Yeah, you. I just dropped a bomb on you.”

True. Maybe I shouldn’t be okay. Maybe I should be sobbing, and mourning the loss of what I suppose I never had. But honestly, it’s hard to feel anything but ice-cold resentment. “I’m okay. I’ve decided I’m leaving in the morning.” I give her a humorless smile. “Also, it’s probably none of my business, but I hope you’ve thought it through. Coming here, I mean.”

Maya takes an unusually long time to reply. She keeps opening her mouth, then closing it, as though she’s talking herself out of saying whatever she’s about to say. Then she sighs. “So, what? You just leave? No confrontation, no revenge, nothing?”

“I wasn’t exactly planning on gushing during the exit interview, if that’s what you’re referring to.”

“And trust the producers to air you trashing their big romantic lead in episode two? No one wants to watch a show about a cheater finding love. And Isaac told me the royal family wouldn’t let them, anyway. They just won’t run it.”

I shrug. “Then I suppose they don’t run it. I can’t control what other people do. The only person I’m in charge of is me, and I’m leaving. And if you had any self-respect, so would you.” I pause, replaying that last part again in my mind. “I didn’t mean that to sound so harsh.”

“I agree with you,” she says. “You tell people how they should treat you when you accept bad treatment.”

“Sure. I suppose that’s true.”

“I wasn’t going to come here, you know,” she says carefully.“But then I thought, he embarrassed me in front of everyone I knew. What if I did the same right back to him?”

I quirk an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I figured if I can get to the very end, I can break his heart, just like he broke mine.”

A slow smile creeps across my face. “The long game,” I say. So, that answers the question that’s been niggling at the back of my mind. She didn’t come here to get her heart broken all over again. She came here to make him pay.

Maya smirks at my impressed expression. “So, tonight you’ve called me pathetic, and accused me of having no self-respect. You wanna take either of those back yet, or…?”

I purse my lips sheepishly. “Maybe I could stand to hold off on the name-calling before I have the full story,” I admit.

“Or even altogether. Go all out.”

It takes me a second to realize she’s only teasing me. Even though I only hated her for two days, I can already tell it’s going to be an adjustment to not expect the worst from her.

“So,” I say. “You want to make it to the end?”

“That’s the plan.”

I proceed carefully. “No offense, but… you’re doing a terrible job.”

Maya kicks me through the blanket. “You know, usually when people say ‘no offense,’ they then go out of their way to insult the other person as gently as they can.”

“I don’t like games.”

“It’s not a game, it’s, like, a social contract.”

“Wonderful, I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Well if you say it like that, I’m not going to believe you, am I?”

“Good, you’re learning. Anyway, Maya, Jordy mentioned you were being quite sweet last night. Before you went on arampage trashing him to everyone, anyway. I think you might need my help making it to the end.”

Maya bristles. “I did date him once, remember. I know him.”

“Yes, but I’veanalyzedhim.”

“How romantic,” she says drily.

I link my fingers. “The only risks I take are the ones I can’t lose. I’m not going to give my heart to anyone I don’t understand inside and out.”

“I guess you miscalculated with Jordy,” Maya says. “I get it. He’s pretty convincing.”