Page 43

Story: Overruled

On a scaleof one to ten of “how bad of an idea is the thing you’re currently doing”—I’d have to say that following Ezra to the guest bathroom of my parents’ house and knocking on the door is a solid eleven. I can hear the water running from the sink, so I know he’s in there, and for a moment I am frozen on the other side with my fist suspended in the air asking myself what in the hell I’m doing. But I’m here, and I know if I go back outside right now, the thoughts in my head will just drive me crazy.

So I knock.

“Are you decent?”

I hear his answering chuckle just as the water shuts off. “I guess that depends on who you ask.”

“Ezra.”

There’s a softsnickas he turns the lock. “It’s open.”

I push open the door just as he’s drying his hands, amusement in his eyes as he watches me step inside and close the door behind me. I admit that I hadn’t given much thought to what Iwas going to say when I came in here, so hopped up on the adrenaline of following him that theafterhadn’t fully occurred to me.

“Do you always follow your party guests into the bathroom?” Ezra asks with one arched brow and the barest hint of a smile at his lips. “Not the best host protocol.”

I scowl at him, pressing my fists to my hips. “I just needed to talk to you.”

“You could have talked to me outside.”

“There’s too many”—I wave my hand aimlessly—“people out there. Besides, I don’t know how I would have done that with the way you were ignoring me.”

I immediately regret letting the words slip out. Ezra’s face flashes with surprise just before it morphs into something like delight, his mouth tilting at the corners until it settles into an impish grin. “Were you feeling lonely?”

“Shut up.” I cross my arms over my chest. “I’m just trying to figure out what game you’re playing.”

“Who said I was playing a game?”

“Because there’s no other valid reason for you to be here.”

“It sounds like maybe youwantto play a game with me,” he teases.

I flush at the once-over he gives me, crossing my arms over my chest and huffing indignantly. “See? That right there. We agreed we were going to keep things professional, and it hasn’t even been three weeks and you’re here trying to…” I frown, not really surewhatEzra is trying to do here. I want to say that’s what has me so worked up, but I’m not sure that’s true. “It’s just weird. You being here.”

“I’m still having a hard time understanding why it’s weird. Especially since I was invited.”

“Right,” I snort. “As if you’d have jumped at the chance to come to my family’s party three weeks ago when we were still fucking if I’d asked you to.”

“Who’s to say I wouldn’t have?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Don’t be cute.”

“One,” he says, holding up a single digit. “We’ve established that I’m adorable.” He adds another finger. “And two, I’m not being anything, Dani. I’m just saying, how would we know if I would have come? Would you have actually asked me?”

“I—” My lips open, close again, and then press together for a moment. “Why would I? We’re not even friends. We were just…”

“People who fucked,” he says quietly, helping me when I’m clearly floundering to put a word to what we were.

I swallow. “Yes. That.” I chew at the inside of my lip, feeling those unfamiliar goose bumps creeping over my skin once more. “And we ended that. Which I thought you were adhering to, since you haven’t so much as texted me in the last few weeks, but then you show up here—”

“Did you want me to text you?”

“No,” I say too quickly, practically spitting the word in a way that doesn’t sound that convincing. “Of course I didn’t.”

“Hmm. Well, that’s twice now you’ve mentioned me not reaching out. Not texting you…ignoring you at the party—your words, by the way. I don’t know, Dani. It almost sounds like maybe you reallydidmiss me.”

I have to clench my jaw to try to compose myself, hoping that the heat in my cheeks isn’t evident on my face, even as I feel it spreading down to my chest. I will my expression into one that I hope comes across as brusque. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you.”

He surprises me when he answers, “And what if I said I would?”