The cigarette falls from his fingers, crushed beneath his heel like evidence he wants destroyed.

We stand there in the cold air biting through the thin silk of my dress, and I am pathetically, disgustingly ready to forgive him everything if he just…

If he just what, exactly?

Apologizes with sincerity I’d actually believe? Explains the unexplainable? Turns back time and becomes someone worthy of the ache carved into my chest?

The city glitters beneath us, indifferent to our drama unfolding on this stone balcony.

Caleb steps closer, and my heart lurches traitorously toward him despite every rational objection my brain is screaming into the void.

“Does Lucas know?” His voice cuts through the cold air like a blade wrapped in velvet.

“Know what?” I demand, crossing my arms against both the chill and his proximity.

“That you’re only with him because of me.”

The accusation lands like a slap across my frozen cheeks, stinging with truth I refuse to acknowledge.

“You’re delusional.” I force the words out through numb lips. “I chose Lucas because he’s everything you’re not.”

“And what exactly am I not?” He tilts his head, moonlight catching the sharp angles of his jaw.

“Kind.” I tick the qualities off on trembling fingers. “Honest. Attentive. Capable of basic human decency without ulterior motives attached.”

“Sounds like a golden retriever.” His mouth curves into that infuriating smirk. “Very exciting.”

“Excitement isn’t everything, Caleb.” I step back, but the railing stops my retreat. “Some of us prefer stability over chaos.”

“You don’t want stability.” He closes the distance I just created. “You want to feel safe wanting what terrifies you.”

“What terrifies me is your complete inability to take responsibility for anything you’ve done.”

“I’ve taken responsibility.” His voice drops lower, intimate despite the open air. “I told you the truth about Bennett, about Halloween, about the photo, about all of it.”

“After I discovered the mask in your closet!” The words escape louder than I intended. “That’s not confession, that’s damage control.”

“And yet here you are.” He gestures between us, at the shrinking space. “Alone with me on a balcony instead of inside with your puppy.”

“I came out here for air, not for you.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” The words land soft and devastating, stripped of mockery.

Silence stretches between us, thick with everything we’re not saying. The tension crackles like static before a storm, electric and dangerous and impossibly charged.

His eyes drop to my mouth, and neither of us breathes.

My heart pounds so loud I’m certain he can hear it through the cold air, beating out a rhythm that sounds suspiciously like his name.

Every rational thought I possess screams at me to move, to break this spell, to remember what he’s done and who he is beneath the beautiful surface.

But my feet stay rooted to the stone, and my lips part without permission. He leans closer, breath warm against my frozen skin, and I think—

The balcony door opens with a sound like a gunshot. Lucas appears in the doorway, concern shifting to wariness when he sees Caleb, then bleeding into something territorial that hardens his jaw.

“There you are.” Lucas crosses the balcony toward me, gaze never leaving Caleb. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

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