The sarcasm was no doubt meant to further irritate him, and it worked like a charm. Ezra's shoulders drew up towards his ears with building tension. He didn't want to compete for anyone's affections, and she fucking knew that. She was trying to call his bluff, he supposed, which wasn't fair. He was only doing exactly what was expected of him — he was a single man at a debute, this was the bare minimum that was expected of him. And yes, it was all fake, but there was no reason she needed to rub that in his face.

"What I would like is for you to stay out of my life," he spat, and immediately regretted it. His tone was too raw, his body language too tense — too obvious that he'd let her get under his skin, not just in this conversation or during the one with Priscilla Reinhart but from the moment they'd both arrived. And the words themselves were problematic, too, because they weren't true, and both of them knew it.

---