May the Best Ex Win

33 | It Never Would've Been Too Late

She stepped back and motioned with her head for me to come in before closing the door behind us. "I'm glad you're here— I've been wanting to say sorry for dropping out of the race without telling you," she said, walking to the small black speaker on her desk and hitting a button to stop the music. 

"What?" My voice sounded louder in the silence, the confusion in it unmissable.

She shrugged. "It wasn't really just my campaign. I was mad, but I should've at least told you."

I shook my head, baffled that she was apologizing to me. "Emily, you had every right. You would've been justified in doing a lot worse than that."

She let out a small laugh, leaning against the table behind her. Okay, so maybe she really wasn't mad at me anymore— an apology wasn't usually the type of thing you'd get from someone who was, and she seemed much less guarded than the last time we spoke. I wasn't even expecting to get a smile out of her, let alone a laugh.

"I came here to ask..." I shifted on my feet, telling myself to just get it out. The worst that could happen was that it wasn't her, in which case we could both laugh at my stupidity. "The donation— that was you?"

She seemed to freeze in place, then closed her eyes for the duration of a short, resigned sigh, giving me my answer. "They told you who it was from, huh?"

Relief flooded through me, clashing with my unwavering confusion. "How did you... Why did you...?"

She filled in the gaps of my nonsensical questions, looking down at the carpet as she answered. "My parents donate to different causes all the time— I asked if they'd consider helping out the school. It was an impulsive thing. I didn't know they'd tell you who gave the money."

"You didn't want me to know?"

"I don't know. I wanted to tell you, but then I freaked myself out." She raised a shoulder, pursing her lips. Her voice took on a sheepish tone I'd never heard from her before as she spoke again, "I didn't want you to think I was trying to... bribe you to like me, or something."

"I wouldn't have," I assured her, walking over to sit next to her against the desk. "Mainly because I thought I was making it pretty clear that I already like you."

She met my eyes for a second before looking away, casting her gaze on anything but me. "I was really mad, Preston. I was hurt— I wanted to hate you."

I swallowed, the words hurting even though I knew I deserved them. "I... I don't know how to explain how sorry I am, Emily. I've been hating myself. And I'm trying, I'm trying to change into someone who would've done the right thing. But I know that I can't go back, and I know it's... I can never change what I did."

"You know... I've thought about it a lot since Friday. And I remembered what you said, about mistakes not making someone a bad person. I know what it's like to mess up... to regret something." 

She shrugged a shoulder, finally looking at me again. This time her gaze wasn't full of hurt, but instead something that looked a lot more like guilt. "Besides, you were scared. Standing up to your friends is never an easy thing to do, and I should've been more understanding. 

"Anyway, I guess the donation was sort of an apology. I knew since I quit you wouldn't have a campaign to help me follow through with, and I kind of felt like I owed you for wasting your time."

I shook my head, not even knowing what to say. I hurt her, and she was apologizing to me? "You know that's probably the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me?"

A smile grew on her face but she bit it back, finally meeting my stare. "Well, good, because it came at a price. I still needed an extracurricular to make my parents happy..." she trailed off, walking over to her closet and pulling out a hanging shirt in a familiar dark blue.

She turned it around and held it up to herself. My eyes widened as I took in the logo, which was printed on many of my own shirts. "Meet your new equipment manager." 

"No way!" I let out a laugh of disbelief, grinning at her. I couldn't seem to organize my thoughts, which were all focused on the fact that Emily wasn't acting like someone who didn't want to be around me anymore— in fact, it was the exact opposite. She'd saved one of the things that meant the most to me, and now was making herself a part of it. "I— What does this mean? For us, I mean. You... won't mind having to spend time with me?"

"I heard about what happened with Ronald," she said, placing the shirt down on her bed and walking back to me. "That, plus what you told me on Friday... like I said, I had a lot of time to think things over. I was hoping you'd let me forgive you, if it's not too late."

"Emily," I shook my head, my smile unstoppable, "It never would've been too late."

The look on her face was like the sun, warming me from the inside out. I didn't let myself overthink it as I leaned forward, placing a hand on her cheek and my lips over hers. Despite all the good that had happened that day, that by far was the best feeling of it all.

I only let it last a second before pulling away, lingering inches from her face. As much as I wanted to really kiss her, we still never got to have the conversation about what we were, and I didn't know where she stood. "Is that okay?"

Her eyes looked at me from beneath their lashes, lips growing into a soft smile. A long second passed before she nodded, the simple motion coating me with another layer of elation. I kissed her again with all the gratefulness of a second chance, our smiles making it clumsy and yet better all the same.

THIS was a hard chapter to write but honestly I'm happy with it, and I hope you guys are too! 💛