“It’s not dramatic. I mean it. I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.”

You saw me yesterday, he implored silently. You saw me when I couldn’t even see myself. Please see me now. Unlike Clark, she only hardened, a caustic undertone taking over her entire being as she tightened her arms across her chest. Did she feel the need to hold herself together? Did she feel as close to shattering into a million tiny pieces as he did?

“You’re telling me you did all of this so you could get me back? Like…to win me?”

“No, I did all of this so you’d know you changed me. After what I did…” Clark loved the way she talked with her hands. When it came to his own twitches and ticks, he despised the way his hands flexed, an instant tell at how nervous he was. “I know I don’t stand a chance. I have too much to learn about being a good man to deserve someone like you. I just needed you to know and leaving a sad voicemail at 2:30 in the morning wasn’t splashy enough.” Kate fiddled with her velvet skirts, but Clark spied her blinking furiously. Did she have a tell of her own? “Now can I ask you a question?”

“One,” she conceded.

“Why are you so upset? I know I hurt you, but you stormed out of A Christmas Carol, and I honestly thought that was the one thing you’d never do.”

With a furrow of her brows and a sigh telling him she only answered because she promised she would, Kate laid herself bare. At this point, he couldn’t tell if he made any progress with her or if she only hated him all the more now for all of his confessions.

“Last night, I swore off of you. And Christmas. So, to wake up this morning and be here with all of this,” she motioned to the green dress gracing her body. When Clark saw it on the rack, he couldn’t help but think, is that really the dress she obsessed over? He understood the appeal as soon as she waltzed into his view. She made a plain green frock glow brighter than any emerald. “It sort of makes me feel like Charlie Brown. The second I start believing in you, you’ll pull away the football and I’ll be on my behind wishing I had never tried at all.”

“I’m not going to pull away the football.” In a moment of stupid bravery, he placed one of his hands atop hers. “I swear.”

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“Do you trust me with one?” he asked, afraid of the uncontrollable undertones of bitterness in the question.