"Friends that occasionally dislike each other."
The suggestion was laughable to her, almost insulting in its absurdity.
"Except I dislike you at all times, not just occasionally." The words tumbled out before she could stop them. They would have been entirely true just a month ago, but now… now she wasn't so sure anymore.
He had been kind to her. Gentle. Honest. Patient. He was the very opposite of the enemy she had sworn to despise.
A man she had vowed never to trust should not speak to her in such a tender voice, nor treat her comfort as something more than an afterthought.
His behavior unsettled her in ways she did not want to examine. It was as if he had taken a battering ram to the carefully built fortress of her hatred, smashing her defenses without even realizing it.
She was left standing in the ruins—annoyed, confused, and more conflicted than she had ever been.
Those were the three main emotions that caused her to lash out like she did earlier that day.
