ALEX.
I walked away from him quickly before my resolve could c***k. My heels clicked sharply against the boutique’s polished floor as I headed toward the payment counter, my chest tight, my thoughts loud. The exchange we had just had still echoed in my head—his dismissive tone, the way he had looked at me like I was overreacting, like my boundaries were inconveniences he hadn’t ordered or permitted.
Maybe I should’ve said it differently, I thought. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything at all.
I hated that my mind always did this; backtracking, rewriting scenes where I had finally stood my ground.
At the counter, I reached into my pocket to pull out my card. My fingers brushed against something else instead— a thin, folded paper. Not the smooth plastic of a card.
I frowned, wondering w
