At his compliment, my fingers tightened around the stem of my glass. I didn't correct him. Instead, I forced myself to hold his gaze a second longer than usual, letting his admiration fill the space that Thorne's rejection had left empty.
"You’re exaggerating," I managed to say, feeling a slight blush.
James smiled, running his fingers through his hair until it was perfectly combed back. "You should join us, we’re just missing one for the darts tournament. You coming?"
"I'm not very good at games," I lied, feeling a slight tingle of normalcy.
"I’ll teach you. I promise not to be a very strict professor," he joked, and the use of that word made me wince, but James erased it with an easy laugh.
His frankness made me let out a small laugh. I accepted.
During the next hour, the pain in m
