Fake it with me
"That's not an insult, Ava, it's an observation, and the fact that you can't tell the difference is kind of the entire point."
She stared at him.
"No one ever just sees you," he continued, quieter now. "They see the performance. The control. The discipline. And you've built that so carefully that even when someone tries to look past it, you make it as difficult as possible, because being seen actually scares you more than losing does."
"Don't psychoanalyze me."
"I'm not. I'm telling you what I see."
"You don't see anything. You see a girl who didn't fall for your charm fast enough and it bothered you, so now you've decided the problem is something deep and complicated about me instead of jus