ne : Restl

nded Brian. The laughter, the smoke, the clinking of glasses,

ht, nothi

his friends nudged, pointi

to the pile, not caring whether he won or lost. His friends didn't notice. They

he table. The whiskey in it looked golden, glowing under the light, temp

me he closed his

ic

park in her eyes, the way her voice trembled yet held steady against him. The way she looked when she th

been in his life for years, tied to him not by choice but by the binding pressure of family expec

exactly what everyone thoug

est ti

move him. Not the way Alice did. Not

ssing his cards onto th

sed a brow. "What's going on with y

smile. "Long da

thin lately contracts, investors, meetings that stretched past midnigh

was

irling it slowly before sett

ned in slightly. "This about

quickly, sharpe

he other side of the table, breaking the tension. The ga

him, he caught himself comparing it to the way Alice's lips curved? That Clarissa's voice,

hrough messages without seeing them. For a moment, he hovered over Clarissa's

the scre

ay her eyes had met his across campus, wide and startled, as if she hadn't expected him

in that glance. Some

rter," another

seeing them. He tossed them down anyw

ignored them. He needed air. Space. Something

him loud, alive, but empty all the same. He tugge

as dan

sa was already suspicious,he'd seen the way her eyes hardened when Alice was nea

rved freedom, not the crushing weight of e

his eyes again, a

his. The girl he c