She blinks, stunned, like she hadn’t even thought it possible, but there’s no trace of mockery in her features. “Really?”

“Really.”

A brief beat of silence.

“Leah?” she says, meeting my eyes in the mirror.

“Yeah?”

“When I first saw you, I thought you would hate me,” she admits.

“I get that a lot,” I say with a snort. “It’s just my face, unfortunately.”

“No, no,” she says quickly. “It’s my problem; I tend to assume that everyone hates me. There might be some deep-seated childhood trauma there, but what I’m getting at is, you have this … this cold, unapproachable aura—”

“Like an icicle,” I put in. “Or an abandoned house.”

“Like the green-tongue Popsicles I’ve always loved.”

I set the blush back down by the sink and cast her a bemused look. “The what?”

“Lü she tou,” she says. “It looks like a regular green Popsicle, but it’s made of jelly, so when it melts, it turns soft. Sorry, I know that doesn’t sound super appealing, but I promise it’s amazing. Anyone who’s ever given it a try ends up coming back for more.”

“That was probably the strangest and nicest compliment I’ve ever gotten,” I say, my laughter bouncing off the gilded bathroom walls, all my discarded hopes finding their way back to me. “Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

From morning all the way to the evening, I contemplate the great Cyrus dilemma.

The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. How could he have been in love with me this entire time? It feels like a fabricated tale, a myth on par with Santa or unicorns—or worse, like a practical joke.

And yes, sure, he’d looked and sounded sincere when he was making his sweet declarations. Maybe even he believes he means it. But the same thing has happened with a lot of guys in the past, and without exception, they turned around and proved themselves to be liars, or changed their minds about me. How can I trust Cyrus not to do the same?

I’m so distracted that I can’t even bring myself to admire the scenery. I know, objectively, that it’s gorgeous: the Sun and Moon Pagodas shine side by side over the waters, glowing gold and silver, perfect twins in structure. But there’s a difference between knowing something and caring about it, and right now, I could hardly care less where we are, if we were in a literal empty room or standing before one of the Wonders of the World. All my thoughts are narrowed in on the boy beside me.