Page 107 of Blush Crush

“I was taking out the trash,” she says, as if it requires explanation.

“I can see that.” I reach out and take the bag from her before she can argue about it. “Lead the way.”

She hesitates for a beat before stepping into the hallway and pulling the door shut behind her.

Shifting back and forth on her feet she casts me a suspicious glance before walking ahead of me. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you about something.”

We walk the remainder of the short distance to the trash chute in silence, which under normal circumstances I would fill with something, but for some reason words are failing me right now.

She yanks open the chute for me and I drop the bag in before she turns to face me, leaning back against the wall with her arms crossed. “What did you want to talk about? You’re being weirdly quiet.”

“Yeah.” I swallow. “Maybe we could sit inside for a minute.”

She eyes me skeptically and I don’t blame her. I’m not acting like myself.

“Sure,” she drawls, spinning around and walking back. I follow close behind, fisting my hands in my pockets while trying very hard not to stare at her ass.

Once we’re inside she plops down on the couch, tucking her feet up under her, and looks up at me expectantly. Duchess materializes from somewhere and immediately climbs into her lap, shooting me a side-eye that very clearly communicates I am not welcome here.

I remain standing.

“You can sit down,” Ariana says.

“I know.”

“You’re making me nervous standing there like that.”

“Sorry.” I sit. Not next to her—in the armchair across from her, which immediately feels like the wrong choice but it’s too late to course correct without making it weird. It’s already weird. I’ve made it weird.

I clear my throat. “I have to go out of town for a few days. Blake and I are going to meet with some growers in the Gorge and then scout for some land. We leave tomorrow and should be back Saturday morning.”

The trip was kind of sprung on me. We’ve been wanting to expand into different regions across the state—bring in more variation, build out blends with a little more depth.

Thanks to Blake and his connections, an opportunity arose that we couldn’t pass up. Normally, I’d be excited we’re finallymaking our plans reality but all I can think of is how much I’ll miss Ariana. And I wonder if she’ll miss me at all.

“That sounds fun.” She smiles, genuinely excited for me even though it’ll likely be boring.

“I was wondering if—if maybe you—if we could?—”

“Are you breaking up with me?” The smile she was wearing has dropped, her forehead creasing with worry instead.

I really am fucking this up. “What? No. I was thinking when I get back we could go on a…date?”

“A date?”

I nod, working on pushing down the tightness in my throat. “Yeah, a date. A proper date. Saturday night.”

She thinks on it for a moment before nodding. “Okay. That makes sense. People would expect to see us doing that.”

Of course. Because it’s all a big show. Fake. A performance. Such a good performance, I’m falling for it myself.

“Right,” I say. “That’s why.”

She nods again, satisfied with that, and I sit with the answer I just gave her and the answer I should have given her and the gap between the two that I don’t know how to close.

“Where are you taking me? What are we doing?”