18 ✓

TWENTY-THREE

I need you to go along with it and pretend that we've never met before.

"Please," he begged softly, taking another step towards me, "Please don't say anything about us."

"You can't be serious," I said, desperately hoping for the words to be true. As the silence lingered, increasing the uncomfortable uneasiness of the room, I slowly realized, this was no joke at all. And yet, there I was, shaking my head with a smile as I let out a laugh. "This is insane. This is fucking insane, do you realize that?"

Hunter shifted on the balls of his feet, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants. "I know this must be-"

"No, you don't know anything, actually," I interjected, holding up a finger to silence him. "Because if you did, you would never ask me to do something like this."

"Angel-"

The angry flame returned to the pit of my stomach, hearing him speak. "Don't call me that."

"Dylan..." he said with a cautious tone, "I know I have no right to ask you to do such a thing. But, I only want to be here for Lily's birthday."

"What an interesting way for you to go about things then," I mocked, cocking my head slightly to the side as I forced a smile on my lips. "Now, if you would excuse me."

Enough was enough. I was not participating in one of Hunter's stupid games any longer. My sister needed to know the truth - Hunter and I knew each other. What harm was that going to do? Probably a lot less than following along with his scheme all for a little kid's sixth birthday party. As I moved to step around him, his hand found its way to my waist, stopping me in my tracks.

"Ang- Dylan," he quickly corrected himself. "Don't you think I have to be pretty fucking desperate to ask you to do something like this for me?"

Hunter's close proximity put me into a haze - a trance of sorts. I could feel myself sinking further into his ocean blue eyes, wishing a wave would come and take me away so I wouldn't have to deal with this any longer. His eyes flickered quickly to my lips, before back to my eyes. He didn't make any movements; he only held my gaze.

I wish my heart had an off switch. I hated myself for thinking at this moment how badly I wanted him to kiss me.

If only there was an easy fix to falling out of love. That would certainly solve my problem. Not all of them - clearly there were bigger issues I had aside from Hunter Grayson - but it would be a welcomed start.

"Just give me one minute," he said, dropping his hand. "Dylan?"

My side suddenly felt cold without his touch, leaving me vulnerable to agreeing to dumb things like hearing what he had to say.

"I know this seems insane to ask of you over a birthday party, but I had no idea you were going to be here. I thought you were in Europe."

I scoffed. "Well, that makes it all better."

"No, I only meant that..." he paused. "I showed up here because I thought you were in Europe. I thought I could have one birthday with my niece before all this shit blew up... because either way, whether they know now or two weeks from now, it's all going to."

I could have asked him what the reason was - but I already knew. It was because of our relationship and the extremely apparent lengths he went to keep it a secret. "Why did you lie?"

"Because I saw you and I didn't-"

"No," I shook my head, stepping forward. "When this whole thing started. Why didn't you tell anyone about us?"