I’m not sure what my face is doing, but it must be something weird because his brow furrows with concern. “You okay?” he asks.

I nod, trying to tamp down the sudden swell of emotion rising in my throat. “I wanted to catch you before you left.”

He tilts his head to the side and smiles. “I’m not going anywhere.”

And that’s when I sit down right there, in the middle of my floor, and burst into tears.

Chapter 16

Scarlett

Six Years Ago

“Why don’t you ever wear red?” Ryan is standing in my new bedroom, adjusting his tie in front of the full-length mirror.

I eye him from where I’m sitting on the edge of the bed, trying and failing to secure the buckle on the one pair of strappy sandals I own. “What?”

“I’ve been watching your social media updates and television interviews for weeks, and I realized I’ve never seen you wear red. Not once. I took a peek in your closet just now to see, and I was right. Not a stitch of red.”

“Do you want me to wear red?” I ask.

“I think you’d be stunning if you ever did, but you’re always stunning. So no, not particularly. It just seems like a staple color in a woman’s wardrobe.”

“This is the strangest conversation I’ve ever had,” I mumble.

Ryan chuckles warmly, running his hands through his hair. “It’s just something I noticed, and I was curious.”

“My name is Scarlett,” I remind him, as if that’s explanation enough.

“And?”

“It’d be a little on the nose, wouldn’t it?”

He shrugs. “Maybe.”

I watch him fiddle with his clothes in the mirror some more. A few months ago, Ava met someone who she swears is the love of her life. I’ve heard that from her before, but this time she fell in love with another woman, which she swears has made all the difference. I suppose when you know, you know. And now that I’ve just arrived home from two weeks on the road, we finally have a moment to meet them out on a fancy double date.

Watching Ryan scrutinize himself in the mirror is maybe one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen. Even after almost a year together, he still gets nervous and wants to impress my friends. I wish we didn’t have to go, that we could have the night all to ourselves, but I miss my friends, too.