Augustus's question hung between us like something fragile.
Are you disappointed in him?
I wanted to say no immediately. To reassure him the way he'd reassured me so many times.
But I'd spent weeks hiding things to avoid disappointing him. I couldn't lie now.
"I'm not disappointed in who you are, Augustus," I said. "I'm disappointed that being together hasn't made us as happy as I thought it would."
He absorbed that without interrupting. His face was pale in the terrace light, and I hated knowing I had put that look there. Yet offering him a reassuring lie would only postpone the question we had both been avoiding.
"I expected knowing each other all these years to make dating easier," I continued. "Sometimes I think we understood each other better as rivals."
"I thought our history would help us, too."
We stood beside the terrace railing, the river dark beneath us. I couldn't decide whether to reach for his hand.
