When he lifts those cerulean blue pools and locks his gaze on mine, my bones lock up, stopping me mid-stride a good four feet away from him.
My skin heats as he drags his gaze down the length of me, and he shakes his head slightly as he pushes off the banister to stand tall. “Sky… Jesus,” he breathes, running a hand over his scruff. “You are so goddamn beautiful.”
Everything in me wants to melt.
I want to swoon, to run to him, to fold myself into his arms and press my lips to his.
But my heart refuses, making me cross my arms and clear my throat, instead. “Thank you,” I say flatly. “Do you need something? I’m kind of busy.”
Kip doesn’t wince, but I see the pain my words inflict regardless. He never was able to hide his emotions from me.
“We finished the show.”
He waits for me to react, and when I don’t, he presses his tongue into his cheek, steeling a breath before he continues.
“I mean, we finished filming. We still have some post-production to do, but it’ll be done back at the school before we turn in the final product.” He swallows. “I think the mini-series will be live on the web by the end of November.”
“Congratulations.”
I can’t help how flat the word is when I release it, can’t help that I’m already turning to leave, but Kip’s hand shoots out to hook my elbow, stopping me in my tracks.
“Skyler, I’m leaving,” he breathes against my neck, his body inching closer and closer. “I’m going back to California. Please,” he pleads, his voice breaking. “Don’t make me leave like this.”
I close my eyes against the pain splitting my chest, against the urge to weep.
“What do you want from me, Kip?” I ask on a breath.
“Forgiveness.”
I turn then, pulling from his grip on my arm. “Forgiveness for what, exactly?”
I need to hear him say it. I need to hear him say he was wrong, that he understands why I was upset — why I still am.
Kip rolls his lips together, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose before he hangs his hands on his hips and looks off in the distance down Greek Row.
I shake my head. “Kip, what happened that night… what happened all last semester… it killed me.”
His nose flared, eyes watering, but he wouldn’t look at me.
“Whether you realize it and want to admit it or not, you chose the show over me.” I swallow. “You chose her over me.”
“Natalia is a professional.”
“Natalia is a bitch,” I correct, not even a little sorry when he finally looks at me with a frown etched in his brows. “She’s conniving and smarter than you give her credit for, and she knew what she was doing.”
“Why are you attacking her? You’re the one who picked her for the part!”
“And that was my mistake. Now, can you admit to yours?”
Kip pinches the bridge of his nose on a long breath. “Skyler, nothing happened. I was directing them through the shower scene so we could get it right. Natalia was there because I asked her to be, she wasn’t trying to—”
“You forgot,” I interrupted, and my bottom lip trembled as I waited for his eyes to meet mine once more. “You forgot to pick me up. For our date. For our anniversary. And then I walked in on you touching another woman, naked, in the shower. Let me ask you this, Kip. If it were me who forgot, who you had to track down, who you found holding another man in the shower — would you be okay with it?”
“Skyler, it’s work. It’s nothing—”
“Don’t do that to me,” I say curtly. “Don’t make it seem like I don’t support you, like I haven’t always supported you. I understood when you needed to move across the country to go to the right school to get you where you want to be. I understood even when you came back here and you explained that I wouldn’t see you much. I understood when your time was wrapped up in filming. I even understood why you didn’t see it at first, the way Natalia looked at you, the things she was doing to make sure I felt threatened.” I swallow. “But I have a right to be upset over what happened, and I deserve a proper apology.”
“I’m sorry,” Kip says quickly, reaching for my hands. He holds them up and presses his lips to the knuckles. “I’m sorry for hurting you.”
I nod, biting my lip.
It still isn’t enough.
“I have to go,” I whisper, pulling my hands from his. “It’s Pref Night and I have a lot to do.”
“Skyler, please,” Kip begs when I turn. “I don’t want to leave like this. I… I don’t even know what we are anymore.”
I pause with my hand on the front doorknob, my breath hitched in my throat, tears swelling in my eyes until the wood panel blurs.