Chapter 28 #2
I’d been disappointed honestly. But later, when I found a frog plushie sitting beside my bag, my heart did a little flip. I didn’t even have to wonder who’d put it there. The culprit's name was practically stitched across the frog’s stupidly adorable face.
The Ferris wheel slowed to its final stop. Vendors clicked off lights and started packing up their stalls. The crowd moved toward the lakeside for the fireworks, the festival’s last farewell.
I stretched my legs, stiff from standing so long, and walked over to the Ferris wheel, settling onto one of the empty seats to wait for the crowd to thin out.
It was the last day.
I drew in a long breath.
The last day for Aeron and me.
Tomorrow there'd be no festival. No reason to bump into each other. Would we even talk again? The thought settled into a heavy ache in my chest, becoming too much to bear, and then the Ferris wheel shuddered.
It started moving.
Panic shot through me. This thing wasn’t supposed to move. I glanced down—the empty ground stared back at me as the wheel carried me higher. And then, as if the ghosts wanted to enjoy the view, the wheel stopped at the top.
I swallowed hard. I hoped it wasn’t haunted.
I looked down, about to shout for the operator, but the only person down there was Aeron.
Of course.
The culprit.
“Aeron,” I shouted down.
He didn’t respond, doing an Oscar-worthy performance of a guy who’d suddenly lost his hearing.
“I know you can hear me.” I tossed a pebble. It missed, landing about a hundred feet away from him.
I called him, and he took his own sweet time answering, like his phone was halfway across town instead of right in his pocket.
“If you don’t get me down from here right now, I swear I’ll edit your Wikipedia page to say you built your photography career on blurry animal photos. I’m not even kidding.”
He chuckled, tilting his head up to look at me. ”Oh no. My entire fanbase of two people will be heartbroken. Anyway, that’s still not how you ask for a favor.”
“Right. I forgot making me beg was part of your weird little fantasy.” I toned down my voice. “Could you please let me down now, Mr. Blurry Photographer?”
He raised a brow. “You owe me. No questions. Just yes.”
“Yes,” I said, already making a note to ditch that.
He crossed his arms, his gaze lazy and infuriatingly stubborn. I knew that look; he wasn’t moving a muscle until I gave him exactly what he wanted.
“I, Astrid Sanders owe Aeron Ashbourne a favor!” I shouted into the phone, loud enough for the whole world to know. “Satisfied? Now get me down from here.”
The Ferris wheel eased down, and the second my feet touched solid ground, I was ready for war.
I stormed toward him. “Were you seriously going to leave me locked up there until I said yes to your stupid favor?” I slammed my fists into his chest. He didn’t even flinch.
“What kind of satisfaction does this give you, idiot?” Another hit.
“I thought that damn thing was haunted.”
I swung again, but he caught my wrists, pulling me close enough that I could feel his warmth.
“Had to lock you in the Ferris wheel to talk to me?” His voice was half-teasing, half-accusing.
Well, fine. I had talked, but only because fear had short-circuited my brain.
I tried pulling free again, but he just drew me even closer, until barely a breath separated us. “Not yet. That favor’s still valid.”
”I have no memory of that,” I muttered.
“Innocence isn’t your best look, Dizzytrid.”
“Until proven guilty.”
Without loosening his hold on my wrists, he tapped the screen on his phone. My voice echoed back at me: I, Astrid Sanders owe Aeron Ashbourne a favor! Satisfied? Now get me down from here.
My eyes widened. “You recorded me?”
“Had to. You’re a professional escape artist when it comes to promises.”
When had I ever done that?
This was the first time he'd asked me for anything. I eyed him suspiciously. “What torture am I agreeing to, exactly?”
“Ride with me.”
My brain needed soap, holy water, or both, because he was pointing toward the Ferris wheel, not the kind of riding that first popped into my head.
“The ticket booth’s already closed for the year,” I said.
He reached into his pocket, pulling out Ferris wheel tickets for two. Had he bought these ahead of time, counting on me saying yes?
“Shall we?”
I stared out at the sky as the Ferris wheel carried us skyward.
The air was cool enough that I should've been crossing my arms, maybe rubbing some warmth into my shoulders, but my body completely ignored that message.
It was too busy burning up from the way Aeron stared at me as if he'd forgotten the rest of the world even existed.
Taking a calming breath, I finally met his eyes.”If all you're going to do is stare, remind me again why you dragged me up here?”
“So you'd stop running away the moment I look at you?”
“I’m not running away.” I stared pointedly away, anywhere else but him.
He caught my chin, startling me, and tilted my face up until my eyes had nowhere else to go but his. “Don’t. I hate it when you look away from me.” His voice was rough, his fingers on my chin more pleading than demanding.
How could such simple words affect me?
“So you’re allowed to push me away whenever you feel like it, but the minute I do, you get angry?” The memory of his rejection was still painfully fresh.
He laughed bitterly. “Why would it matter to you if I pushed you away? Aren’t I just someone working on some damn project with you? Why do you even care?”
His words felt like a thousand tiny knives twisting in my chest. I hated how far I'd let him into my heart, hated that I’d given him the power I'd sworn I'd never let anyone have.
“You’re right. I shouldn't have gotten angry.” All that pent-up anger I'd kept bottled inside burst out.
“I shouldn't have panicked when you didn't pick up my call and rushed over to your house like a complete fool just to make sure you were okay. I shouldn't have imagined ripping your sister's hair out because she hurt you. I shouldn't have chased after you when you’re hurt. I shouldn’t have cared about you because you’re nobody to me.” My voice trembled.
I silently begged the Ferris wheel to end this torture, desperate to run far away from him and all the ways he made me lose control.
“Then why are you still angry?” His voice was infuriatingly calm, testing every shred of my patience.
“I don’t know,” I snapped.
“You still don’t know?”
“No!”
“Let me make it clear, sweetheart.” His hand slid to the back of my neck, and his mouth crashed onto mine.