His switch flips in an instant. What was once gentle and tender turns sharp. Anger flares in his eyes, his sudden fury warming the whole block. Maybe even the whole city. And state. Possibly the whole country. The world just might explode.

Asher is livid.

“Fuck you, Olivia.”

And I’m stunned.

“You don’t get to put me in a box,” he snaps. “Not when you came onto me. Not when you made me the punchline of your joke.”

“Excuse me?” I snap right back at him, ignoring the looks we get from the people walking by. “I made you the punchline of my joke? Exactly what joke did I make you the punchline of? Because if you haven’t noticed, I’m not laughing.”

“Us, Olivia,” he says. “You and me. We were the joke.”

“Is that what you think?’

“It’s certainly what you thought.”

“Excuse me?”

He licks his lips, his eyes glancing to the night sky before returning to mine. “What’s a little mouth on boob action? It’s not that serious? I’ve gone further with guys I barely know? Less pretending? We were so convincing?”

His snide anger is a mask for how hurt he actually is. He overheard what I’d said to Bree. Now he’s trying to hide the fact that he felt more than he was willing to admit, accusing me of not feeling anything at all when I felt everything all at once.

“You think this meant nothing to me? You think you meant nothing to me?”

He shrugs. “It was an act.”

“An act. Of course.” I force down the lump in my throat. “You were my fake boyfriend, right? Because my real boyfriend wouldn’t have ignored my calls when I was alone in a room with a known predator. Do you remember that conversation, Asher? The one when you told me to call you if I was ever alone with Levi? Remember when you told me to trust you? And I did and I called and you didn’t answer?”

“I didn’t know that was why you were calling.”

He won’t look at me. A few more tears escape my eyes and I push them away with the heel of my palm. My mascara is most definitely running down my face. I probably look wrecked, but I don’t care. Because nothing is as bad as how I feel.

“And you know what the worst part is?” I say when his eyes finally catching mine. “It’s not even that you ignored my calls. It’s that you knew—that you’ve known and you continue to let him and your father get away with it.”

He holds my stare and it’s the first time I see him—the man I was definitely falling in love with—and it feels real and honest, but I know better. Nothing about what Asher felt about me was real.

We were fake.