Chapter 81

Serena's POV I woke up to three missed calls from Maya, each one following a string of increasingly frantic text messages: "I swear I had NOTHING to do with this dinner thing!" "Ryan practically begged me to convince you!" "DON'T KILL ME but I might have told him you're free tonight..." "SERENA ANSWER YOUR PHONE" I groaned, dropping my phone onto the pillow. Maya had clearly sold me out. "Traitor," I muttered, though I couldn't summon any real anger. She'd been pushing for me to give Ryan a second chance for weeks now. "He's different," she kept insisting. "The way he looks at you when you're not watching... it's like you're his entire universe." I stared at the ceiling, trying to ignore the nervous flutter in my stomach. After everything that had happened between us—the coldness, the misunderstandings, the heartbreak—did I really want to risk opening those wounds again? My phone buzzed with another message. This time from Ryan: "Dinner tonight? I promise just conversation. No pressure