His eyes widened. “Because of me?”

“Kind of?” I inhaled, letting the chill in the air ground me. “I like you, Oliver.”

“I like you too,” he said, not missing a beat and causing fireworks to go off in my stomach as a result.

“And we’re both leaving soon—I mean, assuming I get this job⁠—”

“You’ll get it,” he interrupted.

“It’s confusing,” I blurted out. “I know this is temporary and nothing about us makes any sense, but all I can think about lately is how sad it’s going to be to say goodbye to you. And I don’t know, I guess that freaked me out. I didn’t want to get any more attached than I already was.”

“So you stepped away,” he finished, blowing out a breath.

“Yes,” I admitted.

“Well, I’m going to be blunt. That sucked.”

“For me too,” I added hurriedly. “I’ve been miserable all week. Then on this trip, all I want to do is be close to you. But seeing you with Elise and how perfect you two would probably be together stung. It’s such a reminder that we don’t fit at all.”

His eyebrows scrunched together. “Elise?”

“Yes, she’s like the female you.” My eyes dropped to my hands but jerked up again at the sound of Oliver’s laughter.

“Lila was right,” he muttered.

“What?” I croaked out.

He shook his head. “She said you were jealous. I told her there was no way.”

“Jealous is a strong word,” I said, even though that was the exact emotion I was feeling earlier today.

His fingers grazed my chin before he forced me to tilt my face up again. “Elise is just a friend.”

“For now.”

“I think her girlfriend would beg to disagree with you on that.”

My lips formed a soft “O.” “Girlfriend?”

“They’ve been dating a few years now.”

“Oh.” I felt even stupider than I had before.

“And you seriously think I would flirt with some girl right in front of you?” He narrowed his eyes, looking disgusted at the thought.

I shrugged helplessly. “We’ve never defined anything or set labels or⁠—”

“We might be confusing, but we’re sure as hell exclusive, I can tell you that much,” he said forcefully.

His words made me snap my mouth shut, and I instantly melted.

“And what makes you think I want the female version of me, huh?” he asked.

“So they can keep up with you.”

“You’re wrong. All I want is you.”

My heart raced as he leaned into me.

“I like dragging you on things you don’t want to go on. I like that you challenge me in ways that have nothing to do with my physical ability. I’ve genuinely loved every second we’ve spent together, and they still aren’t enough.”

I tried to mentally ignore his use of the big “L” word, but my heart couldn’t seem to let it go.

“Can we stop being weird with each other?” he begged. “I’m sorry that I can’t offer you more than right now. Trust me, the past few weeks I’ve been wishing that I was some hedge-fund, Wall-Street-type guy who could just move with you to New York and get some job and fit right in. But that’s not me. You’d never ask me to change, just like I’d never want you to change. We might not have forever, but can we stop wasting the time that we do have?”