"He shifts a little, and our eyes meet as he removes a strand of my hair from his face, pushing it behind my ear. He stares at me with parted lips, his eyes moving to my lips. I gulp as his fingers graze slightly over my cheek, causing me to shut my eyes."
...
Negative thoughts flood into my brain as I wait for him to answer the question I posed to him. What if he says yes? How will I deal with that? T-that'll break me. Maybe I shouldn't have asked him that only. Why did I have to ask him that he hated me?! I'm not prepared for the answer.
I realise then what he must have felt when I said that I hated him that day. I had held him accountable for everything that he had been trying to protect me from. Will he say yes just to hurt me?
No, Ayan will not do that. I'm the one who's petty — who has always been petty.
To my utter surprise, he laughs loudly, "No, Naira. I do not hate you. How do you come up with such things?!"
