LISSA CHEN: I highly recommend you let them know what’s going on, Cade. We never know how these situations are going to turn out. It’s important to have their support. If you’d like, I will be happy to speak or meet with them.

CADE: (blows out a breath) I’ll talk with them tonight.

LISSA CHEN: Excellent. I’ll email you all my contact info. As soon as I receive a response from your principal, I’ll follow up with you. If you have any questions or if anything comes up, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me day or night.

Chapter 23: Cade

After Logan and I hang up with Lissa Chen, I head downstairs to talk with Mom and Dad about the assignment. But when I reach the last step, I hesitate.

Gripping the railing, I glance back toward the messy honeymoon suite, then shift my gaze to our closed apartment door. Twenty minutes ago, I left my parents at the kitchen table, going through receipts from the weekend and this month’s bills.

The honeymoon suite wins.

I put on the latex gloves and give the four-poster king-size bed a hard shove, shifting it back against the wall. I strip the sheets and duvet and stuff them into my laundry bag. I drop the two empty bottles of champagne into the recycling bin and search for the two glass flutes I delivered Saturday night along with a bag of Nana’s homemade chocolate fudge. Kneeling, I lift the dust ruffle and instead of finding glasses, I’m gifted with underwear. Why oh why is it never a twenty-dollar bill? I gather them up, pull off my gloves, and dump it all into the garbage.

Cleaning these rooms, it’s impossible not to think about what happens in these beds, and it’s moments like these that I think about Logan. But this time, instead of fantasy, my mind wanders to that moment when our eyes locked at the museum. We’ve both done a spectacular job pretending it never happened. But what did happen? I wanted to kiss her and I’m almost positive she wanted to kiss me. I’m not imagining it. Am I?

It doesn’t matter. Anything other than friendship with Logan is doomed. But I wish there were some magical incantation that would stop me from wanting her.

I move into the bathroom and crack open the window. As I scrub away a bright yellow film from the Jacuzzi, I rehearse what I’m going to say to my parents about the assignment. By the time the bathroom sparkles for our next guests, I still don’t feel ready, but I’ve put it off long enough.