“I’m listening.”

He still held my arm, refusing to let me go. I didn’t struggle anymore, this time, I paid attention and listened.

“I have a lot of things to say to you,” he paused, and I watched his chest rise and fall dramatically as he took a deep breath, “but I’ll start with an apology for earlier. I didn’t mean anything I said to you.”

My heartbeat raced.

Was he trying to say his feelings are true?

“You’re right about me being a coward because I was afraid— I still am.”

He pulled me closer to him, and I felt my breath hitch.

“For the first time in my...