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‘What happens now?’ Ari asked.

Nancy huffed a laugh. ‘No clue. But I wasn’t gonna leave you to figure it out alone.’

Another pause. Then, so quiet Nancy almost missed it, came a little. ‘Thank you.’

Forty-Eight

Ari was sitting against the door, fingers absently tracing a square in the dust on the floor. Nancy had come back. That part still didn’t make sense. Was Nancy here because she wanted to be or because she felt like she had to be?

Nancy sighed on the other side. ‘You’re too quiet. That’s never a good sign.’

Ari laughed softly. ‘I’m thinking.’

‘That sounds dangerous.’

‘I guess you’d know,’ Ari shot back. She swallowed nervously. ‘Tell me whatyou’rethinking.’

The pause that followed was so long that Ari wondered if Nancy was still there. But then Nancy asked, ‘Why did you kiss me?’

Ari’s breath caught.

‘Was it…’ Nancy hesitated. ‘Was it just to mess with me?’

Ari closed her eyes. The truth was right there, sitting on the tip of her tongue, but saying it meant letting it be real. And that was terrifying.

‘I wanted to,’ she admitted, voice rough. ‘I still do.’

More silence. Ari clenched her fists.

‘Say something,’ she murmured.

Nancy’s voice was quiet. ‘It was an impulse? Just you having some fun, right?’

Ari turned to the door. ‘I’m impulsive, yes. But it wasn’t that. Not with you. And I think you know that.’

Ari could hear the way her breathing had changed. Shallower now.

Ari swallowed. ‘You should go. You can’t get me out.’

‘Maybe not,’ Nancy said.

‘So, go.’

‘I only just found you.’

‘But you can’t do anything.’

‘No,’ Nancy said.

Ari waited for her to say, ‘Well, I tried,’ and then bid her adieu. But there was just more silence.

Forty-Nine

Nancy leaned against the door, arms crossed tight over her chest, but it did nothing to steady the strange, electric feeling running through her. Ari’s words still hung between them, a live wire she didn’t know how to touch without getting burned.

It wasn’t that. Not with you.

Nancy had spent years perfecting the art of pushing things down, pretending they didn’t exist if they were too messy, too complicated. But Ari didn’t allow for that. She said things out loud and let them sit in the air until they had to be acknowledged.