"That was the best I could do," Hugo snapped in response. "You know what I'm like! I was asking you. You should have known!" Though he knew fully how unfair he was being, he couldn't stop, intoxicated anger flaring up viciously. The feeling that he'd done something less than perfectly, misunderstood, gotten it wrong, utterly galled him. He was too clever to get anything wrong. "I-- you should have known, Alex! You know me, don't you?" he spat the last bit a little sarcastically. "And yes, you were completely stunning in it. I wanted to ..." he stopped abruptly, his cheeks turning bright red. "and I didn't have a totally horrid time, but she's not you. You were all I could think about."
It was as if the fight had all gone out of him suddenly. He looked at her sadly, feeling that somehow they'd gone past a point of no return to somewhere he'd never wanted to be. For God's sake, he practically was in... Well, he certainly liked her more than he'd ever liked a girl before. It felt different when it was your best mate you fancied. That she was beautiful just seemed an added bonus atop her sharp wit and spunky attitude. Days spent without her were simply dull. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Feeling as if something were stuck in his throat, he coughed a bit and looked at her again. "I don't know what we are," he murmured, glancing at the floor.