Bre stared dumbly at Collin as he walked away. Her brain raced to make sense of everything. It was all wrong. This wasn’t how the night was supposed to go. They were supposed to be getting drunk and having wild sex—not breaking up.

Is that really what was happening? Were they really breaking up? Yes. And it was because of her.

“Wait!” Bre yelled, without thinking.

She jumped out of her seat and cleared the distance between them before Collin could even turn around. She still clutched his incredibly sweet and thoughtful gift in her hand.

Collin looked her up and down, not saying anything. The guarded look in his eyes made her feel even worse. She knew it was going to take more than just telling him how she felt to have a prayer of making this right. She took a deep breath. Why did this have to feel so difficult?

“You’re right, I haven’t been completely open with you,” she said. It wasn’t the best beginning… but it was something.

“You know you can share anything with me, right?” Collin said.

“Yes.”

He stared at her for a long moment. Bre knew he wanted more than she was giving him—it just felt impossible.

“I don’t understand,” he said, shaking his head in frustration. “Did I do something that made you not trust me?”

“No, it’s not that. If anything it’s the opposite.” Collin gave her a blank stare, clearly not sure how to respond to that. She sounded crazy; and that only made her feel worse. “It’s just that… there are parts of my life that I don’t let other people see. It doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s just how I am.”

“Are they bad things?” he asked.

“I guess that depends on what you mean by bad.”

His eyes widened, just a bit.

“Do you keep children locked up in your closet or something?”

“No,” she said, not sure if he was serious.

“Well, do you have a collection of animal organs you keep preserved in glass jars? A torture chamber? Nazi collectibles from the war?”

“Gross, no! Nothing like that,” she said, letting out a little laugh. Collin smiled along with her. It felt nice to see him let down some of his guard. “I’m not a psycho or anything. I just… I don’t have my shit together like you do. I think I missed the part of life where you’re supposed to start acting all responsible and stuff.”

“I definitely don’t feel like I have my shit together… And I’m not expecting you to have your whole life figured out either.”

“It’s embarrassing. Like really embarrassing. You don’t know how intimidating it is to date a smart and responsible man like you.”

Collin put his hands on her shoulders, giving them a comforting squeeze.

“Bre, I don’t care about any of that stuff,” he said. “What’s important to me is that you let me into your world. I don’t want some dolled-up fake version of you. I want something real.”

She wanted to die on the inside.

“That scares the hell out of me.”

“Me too.” Bre was about to say something, but then bit her lip and held it back. “What is it?” Collin pressed.

She hesitated again, even though she knew she couldn’t keep things from him anymore. God, this whole being real thing sucked.

“I want you in my life,” she said, finally.

A huge grin spread across Collin’s face.

“Good. I want you in mine too.”

Bre beamed at him. She felt lighter. Not like all the pressure had lifted off her shoulders, but at least some of it.

“I don’t know what to say.”

Collin cocked an eyebrow and gave her a devious look.

“Perhaps, on the way to your place, you can think up some way to distract me from all the things you don’t want me to see…”

“That sounds like a good idea,” she agreed. “But we’d better make it quick; before I chicken out.”

He hugged her tight and pressed a warm kiss into her forehead.

“Come on, let’s go.”