Page 101 of Falling Like Snow

Asher stands there, quietly frozen. When I finally work up the nerve to raise my eyes to his, he’s looking past me, his jaw flexed.

“It’s embarrassing. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you,” I say.

His eyes shoot to mine, his hands balling into fists.

“Are you going to say something?” I ask when he continues to stand there silently.

“I don’t know what to say,” he says, shaking his head. “I agree with you that I’m the least threatening person alive. But I don’t feel that way right now. It’s literally taking every ounce of me not to head back to that dance and hit him.”

“Yeah, well… I sort of already did that,” I mumble, holding my hand up for him to see.

“Oh my god, Sloane,” he says, running his fingers over my reddened knuckles. “It’s swollen.”

I shrug. “I barely feel it.”

His eyes find mine. “Come on. Let’s get you changed and settled.”

He pulls me toward the stairs, but I plant my feet, digging my heels into the floor. “No,” I say when he turns around. “Go back to your date. The dance still has at least another hour left.”

He shakes his head. “No way. I’m not going back.”

“You can’t ask Daphne to go with you to a dance and then leave her,” I say, as much as it pains me.

“She’ll understand,” he insists, tugging me toward the stairs again.

“No, Ash. She won’t. I was so afraid of things changing between us, but the reality is, at some point, they have to.”

“No they don’t.”

I stare at him because we both know I’m right.

“Well, that point is not now,” he insists.

I watch his thumb skim over mine and blink back tears. “It is.”

“Why?” he whispers.

“Because we don’t have a typical friendship, and I don’t want it to ruin things with someone you like. I want you to be happy,” I say. And I mean it.

Asher opens his mouth like he’s going to say something; then he closes it and drops my hand. “Turn around. I’ll unsnag your zipper for you before I go.”

I spin, facing my back to him, and after some tugging and yanking, he breaks the fabric free. I hold the front of my dress up, and Asher slowly pulls the zipper down, his fingers gently grazing my spine, awakening every nerve ending in my body. It seems unnecessary but certainly isn’t uninvited, despite everything that happened tonight.

And that’s how I know Micah is the wrong person.

A shiver runs through me, causing goose bumps to erupt across my skin. There’s no hiding the effect he has on me, because half my body is exposed at this point. When he finally reaches the bottom of the zipper, he lets go. I spin to face him, my brain screaming stay.

“Will you need help with your hair?” he asks quietly, looking at the complex updo full of bobby pins.

I want to shout, YES! But I shake my head. “I’ve got it. Get back to Daph.”

“Okay.”

His eyes search mine. For what? I’m not sure. Then he steps closer, leaving only inches between us.

“You shouldn’t be embarrassed,” he says, the Christmas lights from the garland around the doorway twinkling in his eyes. “It doesn’t matter how much you flirt. It doesn’t matter if you kiss him first. You should never have to push a guy off you. Saying no should be enough.”

I cast my eyes to the floor.