Page 75 of What I Like About You

Chapter Twenty-Five

He shouldn’t have saidthat. He knew it. He knew it was an overreaction. Yet, the anger that was flowing through him right now couldn’t be stopped. It was like she hadn’t heard a single thing he had told her this week.

“Excuse you?” she snapped back, indignance taking over her tone. “That is not what I said!”

“Might as well have been,” he bit back.

“Seriously?” she remarked. “Who didn’t want to be seen with the fat girl in high school? Who was the one who wouldn’t admit to our friendship because he was afraid of how it might look?”

“Not the same thing!” he retorted. “That was then. I was a fucking dumbass! I’ve changed.”

“So have I!”

Dalton just shrugged. “You’re certainly acting like the only way I’m good enough for you to be with is if I’m that guy back in Atlanta. Because that’s the only Dalton who could be worthy of your future.”

“That is not even close to what I said,” she repeated, her teeth gritted. “If you want to live footloose and fancy-free off your trust fund, go for it. But that’s not the life I want.”

“Live off my trust fund?” he repeated. Her words made him sound like some lazy rich kid. She should know better than that. He’d always worked hard, always been driven to succeed. She’d been there, watched him as he’d taken on whatever had been thrown at him in high school while interning for the family business. Hell, even after leaving all that behind, he’d found a job rather than just waste away on the beach. “I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but I haven’t touched a dime of my family’s money. You should know me better than that. You’ve seen me working all week! When I walked away, I walked away from it all. I didn’t want anything to do with that dirty money.”

“You walked away from everything, alright. Including me,” she said under her breath.

“You walked away first, Zara! Or do you not remember that?! You were the one who wouldn’t take my phone calls or return my texts. You were the one who told your parents to tell me that you weren’t home when I knew damn well you were. You were the one who chose to attend a different school.”

“I wanted you to fight for me!” she screamed. “I wanted to know that I actually mattered to you. That I wasn’t just like any other pussy in the dark.”

His own words stung as she threw them back in his face. They were just as harsh now as they had been back then. He took a deep breath, trying to keep himself focused, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t fight back against the pain that her rehashing of them was causing.

“I’ve apologized for that! Will that apology ever be good enough? Or will you just be saving that to rub my face in for the rest of time?” he yelled, exasperated. How many times could he apologize for that? He thought she had forgiven him fully. Thought they had moved on.

Zara just stood there, arms crossed, kicking at the sand. Strands of her semi-wet hair danced in the wind, and Dalton couldn’t help but think that even when she was angry, she was striking. The scowl on her face did nothing to hide that sparkle that was always in her eyes. He just wished that right now it was the sparkle, rather than the scowl, that was directed at him.

After a moment, when she hadn’t responded, he said, “What part of this last week has led you to think that I feel anything other than a thousand percent sorry for what I said?”

“None of it,” she answered with a sigh. “I know you are. And I meant it when I said I forgive you.” She closed her eyes, sighing again, before turning and walking a few steps down the beach. After another moment and what appeared to be a few deep breaths, she turned back to face him. “But I am not the same girl that I was. I have worked so hard these last few years, Tripp. On my brand, on my content, my reputation. But most importantly, on myself. I’m not that same fat girl from ten years ago.”

“You were never just some fat girl—” he started, but she held up a hand to stop him.

“Maybe not to you. But I didn’t know that. I thought you, just like everyone else, saw me that way. Hell, I saw myself that way!” she ranted. “And it took me a really long fucking time to not see myself that way. Yes, I’m still a bigger girl. Yes, I’m still really insecure about my body, but despite all that, I’ve built something. I have a successful brand and a huge following, and I can’t just give that all up because you want me to!”

“I’m not asking you to,” he countered.

“But you are! How can you not see that? I think it’s great that you developed a life for yourself here. But it’s not the real world, Tripp. It’s a fantasy. You said it yourself, people come and go.”

“So what about us?” he asked.

“Is there an us?” she asked in rebuttal.

“I want there to be. I want a future with you.”

“I do too. But I can’t just uproot my life, Tripp. I’ve worked too fucking hard to just walk away for some boy!”

“Some boy? That’s all this is? That’s all I am to you—some boy?”

“Yes. No!” she said, running her fingers through her hair with frustration.

“Which is it?” he asked, his heart feeling like it could beat out of his chest. Every emotion he’d ever felt seemed to hang in the balance of her answer. He wasn’t sure he would be able to continue to breathe if she said yes, that he didn’t mean everything to her, like she meant everything to him.

“No, you are not just some boy. You never could be. Our lives are too intertwined for that.”