“I mean, it’s not like we had some great, epic love story or anything,” he went on to nobody in particular. “Like, how’s this, right, she constantly talks shit about her best friends, and if I ever dare to take her side during her two-hour rants about them, she goes and tells them everything I said and they hold it against me! How fucked up is that? Why do I even want to see her?”

Distancing and devaluing. He felt back in control when he was the one who didn’t want her. Textbook.

“Oh but now, now she desperately wants to go hang with Kaylee and Emma. The same Kaylee and Emma she told me are histrionic drama queens on Space Mountain, but, hey, that’s none of my business. Whatever she wants to do, you know?”

“Right,” I added. Mostly to pretend this was a conversation and not a one-sided rant.

“I’m just saying I’m not the only one with flaws here. I’m not going to degrade myself to beg for her to care about me. It’s not like I did her some great wrong.”

“Well—”

“I mean, I might not have been perfect but I would never have hurt her, or let anyone else hurt her, not for anything. I’m sick of feeling like I’m the one who fucked everything up between us. She broke us just as much as I did.”

It was truly fascinating. Even while descending, Brougham managed to keep his face almost entirely passive. If it weren’t for the odd twitch in the corner of his mouth, he might as well have been discussing the humidity levels.

“You’re hurt,” I said simply.

He scoffed. “Ah, no. I’m fucked off.”

“And hurt.”

“You have to care to be hurt,” he said.

“And you don’t care?”

“No. Like I said, it’s fine. I’m glad she’s gone off. Saves me putting in any more time and effort.”

Talk about a gentleman who doth protest too much. “If you say so.”

His head snapped up and he bored into me with hard eyes. “You can go now. There’s no point staying, unless you want to go have fun with your sister. I know you didn’t want to be here in the first place.”

And there it was. For a moment there I thought I’d gotten away with losing Brougham and being AWOL when he needed me. “I know I fucked up. I’m so sorry. The timing of that was awful.”

The only indication he was irritated was him sucking on his teeth. “It wasn’t just at the end. I kept losing you all day.”

“Disneyland’s a big place,” I said, but it was a weak defense. “And, I guess, I didn’t think you needed me.”