“I’m just asking.” He shrugs, but his eyes are sharp. “Are you in love with her?”
I set down the spatula once more. “Yeah,” I say. “I am.”
Sage absorbs this with a slow nod. Then he fixes me with a hard stare that seems far too wizened for the bratty teen I once knew. “She’s good, you know,” he says. “Like, actually a good person. In her soul. Not fake-good or trying-to-impress-you good.” He looks down at his hands. “She deserves someone who won’t keep screwing up.”
Sage leans forward with sudden intensity. “Then don’t mess it up again. Whatever it takes, Basti, whatever you have to do or become, do it. Don’t let her slip away.” He shakes his head and adds in a wry undertone, “Besides, I can’t take any more of you two moping around about each other. It’s fuckin’ depressing.”
Before I c
