Emma woke up and reached for her best friend, Alex. Instead, her hand landed on a stranger: blond hair, blue eyes, and abs she definitely would have noticed before. She panicked and kicked him out of bed. But then he called her by a nickname only Alex knew. And on his left wrist was the exact same red birthmark.
Her best friend of two years had somehow turned into the guy everyone on campus was staring at, and Emma’s life promptly fell apart. She scrambled to hide him from the dorm inspectors and make up a new identity for him. Alex, meanwhile, acted like nothing had changed. He still made her breakfast in his pink apron, curled up in her arms when he was scared, and insisted, “I turned into a man. I didn’t turn into someone else.”
But Emma couldn’t hold him the way she used to. She got jealous when other girls came near him. When he stepped in to protect her, her heart skipped a beat. And Alex was starting to realize he couldn’t stand seeing her hold someone else’s hand, either.
Before either of them could figure out how to say what they felt, Alex’s mother showed up at the door. She stared at the strange man claiming to be “Emma’s boyfriend” and asked, “Where’s my daughter?”
