ARIA'S POV
I made tea at 2 AM and sat with it until it went cold.
I didn't try to sleep after the first hour of lying in the dark staring at the ceiling with my brain running around with feelings that needed to be sorted.
I sat at the table with the cold tea and laid it all out like canvases. That was how I'd learned to think through hard things, in the studio, each piece separate, each one getting its own wall in my head before I looked at the whole arrangement.
Number one, he knew before he ever met me. That was a fact. He'd confirmed it with a yes that had taken nothing away from him and everything from the thing I thought we'd been from the beginning.
Number two, he'd planned the meeting. He designed and manipulated things to get close to me.
Number three, he said him falling in
