Page 128 of The Heart Breaker

I just want to see him. I want him to wrap his arms around me and tell me that everything will be okay, even if I don’t believe it.

I wipe at my face and wait for him to open the door and pull me into his arms.

Lately, being with Cole is the only thing that makes anything feel even slightly bearable, which still feels insane enough to think. If someone had told me a few months ago that he’d become the person I ran to, I would’ve laughed in their face.

But when the door opens and he looks at me, all I see is the version of him I used to know. The hard jaw. The closed-off expression. The look that kept me at arm’s length for years.

“Hi.” I sniffle. “Can I come in?” I ask.

“No.”

I blink up at him, wondering if I heard him wrong, because… “What?”

His hand tightens on the door. “You need to go.”

I blink. “Cole?—”

“I mean it, Aurora.”

I blink, trying to understand what the hell is going on, because none of this makes sense. Not with the way he looked at me this morning. Not after the last few days. Not after everything that’s happened.

“What are you talking about?” I ask him. “What’s going on?”

He exhales through his nose. “I’ve got more important shit to deal with. I don’t have time for whatever this is.”

I stare at him, my heart pounding against my chest. “What is that supposed to mean?”

When he looks at me, all the warmth I’ve gotten used to over the past few weeks is gone. “It means this is over.”

My stomach drops. My heart does too. Everything in me just… falls. “Over?” I repeat. “Cole, what are you?—”

“This should’ve never gone this far.” He drags a hand through his hair and looks away. “It never should have happened.”

He’s lying. I know he is because I know him. I’ve spent months learning the small things, and one of them is that when Cole can’t look me in the eye, he’s lying. I just don’t understand why. I don’t understand what could have changed in less than an hour after I left his place.

“You kissed me this morning,” I remind him. “We were going to go on a date tonight.”

His gaze flicks back to mine. “I know.”

“So what?” I ask, my brows pulling together. “You just changed your mind in an hour?”

He shrugs, still not really looking at me, and for a second, I can’t even speak. The words get stuck somewhere between my chest and my throat until I can’t tell if I’m about to cry, scream, or throw up.

My chest tightens. “Did I do something?” I ask instead of asking the question I want to know.

Why don’t you want me anymore?

His jaw tightens, but he says nothing.

I swallow hard. “I thought?—”

“What?” he snaps, his eyes flashing to mine. “What the fuck do you want from me?”

I blink at him, and for a second all I see is the version of him from months ago. Hate and anger mix in his expression as he looks at me like he can’t stand the sight of me.

What do I want? I want him to take one look at me and know I’m not okay. I want him to stop lying, because there is noversion of the last week that fits the shit he’s saying now. I want him to tell me what happened. I want him to let me in.

I feel the tears coming and I’m so mad at myself that I came here hopeful and stupid enough to think he might be the one place that still felt safe today.