Anything You Can Do

by R.S. Grey

I remember his hand shaking, enraged at the voters for forcing us together like that. I could feel his pulse through the palm of his hand.

Halfway into the song, I noticed him looking at my face, his eyes fixed in concentration, his expression tortured. “Stop looking at me as if I somehow fixed the polls. Trust me, you are the last person I want to be up here dancing with,” I seethed in response to his strange look. He shook his head and broke away from me, having reached his limit.

Another bright spot for me is that men regularly mistake my exhausted ramblings and honest deprecation as humor and personality.

“To your earlier question: yes.” “What?” I ask, my voice raspy. “I’m the only one,” he says before walking away.

He laughs and I know I’ve said the wrong thing. “There is no war, Daisy. For me, there never was.”

“Why do you think I’ve never had a serious girlfriend? Huh?” He pushes on. “Why do you think I always broke things off before I came home to Hamilton? It was for YOU! Because I wanted you. Every other relationship I’ve had has been a futile attempt to get over you. To move on.”

“Sure, but if you were going to say it…” He grins and takes his time turning around to face me. I try to bite my lip, to conceal my reaction. It doesn’t work. “Because, Daisy, I won. I have everything I’ve always wanted.”

The last two people who knew Lucas and Daisy were going to end up together forever were Lucas and Daisy.