10

I reach forward, lacing my fingers through Valen’s, looking into his endless eyes.

“You know about Zayne,” I say. “We were together for a long time. We worked together. He was one of the few people I could stand. On paper, we should have had a future together.”

Valen’s brows furrow, and I can tell he doesn’t like hearing about my past relationship. But this is real. This is our beginning, and we’re supposed to talk about these kinds of things.

“But he wasn’t enough for me.” I hate the words. I hate myself for confessing them and feeling their truth, because I have to be a terrible person to think that about someone who is wonderful. “In the end, we weren’t balanced.”

Valen’s fingers tighten around me, and I just have this feeling in my gut. That even though Valen and I are so opposite, even though everything in the galaxy is against the likelihood of us being…us, we are perfectly balanced.

“Zayne was the only person I let in,” I say, looking at Valen, opening the truth in my hear