Flashback ( PDFDrive )

think about things you never would’ve thought about before. It’s hard to
explain until you work through it, but it’s actually pretty brilliant. You
should at least pick up your packet and read the questions. You don’t have to
turn it in.
Sophie sighed. Maybe. It’s just . . . every time I think about doing that, I
think about the people the system’s hurt.
It’s definitely not perfect, Fitz agreed. But . . . that doesn’t mean it’s ALL
bad.
I know.
The smart thing would’ve been to stop there—back far, far away
from the dangerous territory they’d wandered into.
But Sophie must not have been feeling very smart.
What would you do if you didn’t like any of your matches? she asked,
blurting out the words in a messy burst.
Fitz shifted his weight. I have no idea I mean . . . being a bad match is
a mess for anyone. But for a Vacker?
Has anyone in your family ever—
Nope. Some have never gotten married—but that’s different. If I ended
up in a bad match, it’d be this huge thing that EVERYONE would talk
about. I’d never, ever stop hearing about it. My parents and sister would
never, ever stop hearing about it. And . . . I don’t know if I could handle that.
She couldn’t fault him for not wanting to live through that kind of
drama.
But he’d also shone a big, glaring spotlight on something she hadn’t
let herself think about. She’d been so worried about confessing her
crush and wondering whether or not he might ever like her that way
that she’d never realized . . .
Even if he did, it might not matter.