Текст книги "Dare Me"

Автор книги: Stella Rhys

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Chapter Twenty

Callum

 

Ana’s eyebrows rose sharply as we walked across the tarmac.  She was leaning against the railing of the steps leading into the jet and smoothly pulled her shades down to mask her dissatisfaction.  It flashed in her dark eyes the second she spotted Lake, my shoulder draped in her luggage and her fingers entwined in mine.  It was noticeable enough that Oz exhaled with a hint of stress, which might’ve been the first time I’d ever heard that emotion from him.

“What?”

He shrugged.  “Here’s to hoping she’s not the type for petty revenge,” he muttered when Lake broke away from me to help with her luggage.

“What do you mean?”

“You brought your girl on a business trip and I’m sure the reasons aren’t business-related but Ana looks a wee bit unhappy about it.”

“She’ll get over it,” I said as we climbed the steps and into the Gulfstream.

“You must be Callum’s lovely lady,” Ana held her hand out to Lake when we got in.  I shook my head at her when she shook Lake’s hand but looked straight at me.

“I guess so, though I’ve never heard Callum describe me as lovely,” Lake laughed, peering at me.  “Or a lady for that matter.”

I smirked.  She was too fucking sexy to be described as lovely but of course she was.  I kept the thought in and nodded for us all to take a seat.  “Nice touch,” I remarked at the table lined with various bottles of Pike Scotch.  “Some hair of the dog?” I asked Oz and Lake, who both groaned.

We’d all had too good of a time last night, Lake and myself in particular.  By the time we returned downstairs to our friends, Oz had gotten them sufficiently drunk because that was what he did best with people – bring out their worst.  We’d mixed Scotch with champagne over five courses of dinner and at the end of it all, joined whatever party was going on in the event hall.  While Oz, Logan and Isabel danced their asses off, I sat at the bar with Lake on my lap, both of us just laughing and watching.  Some drunk asshole grabbed Isabel’s ass and before Lake and I could move a muscle, Isabel beat him with her clutch like a woman gone mad.

“Shame that she’s married.  That was the sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen,” Oz shook his head.  “Top five at least.  You know that kind of feisty translates well in bed.”

I ignored him.  “Know what that reminded me of?” I asked Lake, whose eyes were already wide on me because she was thinking the same.

“My grandma.”

Elena had been the feistiest old woman I’d ever met in my life.  Twice she had her purse snatched on the subway and twice she smacked the living shit out of the thief with it when she got it back.  The second time, she enlisted the help of a stranger to drag him to a cop on the platform.  The memory had us laughing fondly till Oz asked if Lake’s grandma was single.

“She’s dead, Oz.”

He winced.  “So that’s a ‘no?’”

“For this lifetime, unfortunately.”

We were all pretty drunk.  Lake was apparently enough so to get started on her confession with me.  It was after we’d snuck our drinks back upstairs and sat on the top of the steps, watching all the drunken antics unfold below us.  It had been quiet for a minute when she tossed back the rest of her champagne and spoke.

“I started talking to my mom again after my grandma died.”

I looked at her without showing my surprise.  “Yeah?”

“You know my mom’s name right? My biological mom?”

“Trisha.”

“Trish, yeah.  She tried asking my grandma for my contact info once, I think when I was like, thirteen, and my grandma shut that shit down so fast,” Lake laughed, staring bleary eyed into nothing.  “She knew she was bad news.  Never wanted my dad to be with her.  My dad was apparently a good guy.  I mean, obviously, since my grandma made him.”

She never really knew him.  He didn’t have much contact with her mom and died young in a car accident.  I wanted to say something comforting but instead, I just nodded and listened, afraid to disturb whatever had shifted in the air to inspire Lake to talk.

“My grandma warned your mom, too.  She said Trish found out about the nice, cushy life I suddenly had and she was suddenly very interested in me.  Your mom was worried.  She told me to tell her if I ever received contact from Trish.”  The amusement faded from Lake’s voice and shame trickled its way in.  “I really should have done that.”

“When did she try again?”

“Literally the day we got back from my grandma’s funeral.  On Facebook.  She was really nice at first, actually.  She went through my pictures and said I looked so pretty and I had such a cute boyfriend and she was happy my life was so good.  I knew from the way your mom and my grandma acted that it was wrong if she tried to talk to me but it didn’t… feel so bad.  She was my mom.  She was the only blood I had left.  And I was kind of curious about how she might’ve changed.  If maybe she’d gotten better.”

“Better? From what?”

Lake shrugged.  “I was six when I left her.  I don’t really remember knowing names or any official diagnoses of what was wrong with her.  Looking back on it, and just from what I saw on her Facebook, she was… obviously on drugs.  She made some crazy poor choices when it came to men.”

My muscles tightened.  “Did any of them hurt you?”

“No.  They hurt her but they never touched me.  Then again, I think they forgot I was even there.”  She looked at me, bracing me for laughter.  “I hung out in the closet a lot, with the door closed.  Even when I was home alone.  I just liked the dark.  I’d just sit there braiding my hair like a little dumbass,” she giggled at herself.  I cleared my throat, offered a smile as my heart crushed at the thought of little Lake before I knew her, sitting alone in a pile of laundry and oblivious to how she was saving herself.  “I mean I’m sure it wouldn’t have stayed like that if my grandma didn’t eventually take me away, but honestly, all the bad that came from that time was from Trish.  From living with her.  She just wasn’t mother material – she was fifteen when she got pregnant with me.”

I kept my face decidedly frozen.  I didn’t want any look of surprise to discourage Lake from going on.  But I hadn’t known that detail.  I hadn’t known much at all about her family aside from her grandmother, Elena.  I didn’t consider Trish her family at all. I had no idea she was ever curious to.  “What was it like living with her?” I asked.  From what my mother told me, Lake came from a “broken family” but it hardly seemed like she even had a family to break.

“It’s foggy.  I remember being home alone a lot.  I honestly can’t even remember if that house was an actual house or a trailer home.  I don’t even remember what the neighbors’ houses looked like.”  She let out a breath of disbelief as she realized it.  “I didn’t even go to school.  I kind of existed as this little thing that floated around bothering her and reminding her that she probably should’ve gotten an abortion instead of thinking that a baby would make her a better person.”

I flinched.  Couldn’t help it.  I supported every bit of a woman’s choice but the thought of Lake never existing rocked me to my core.

“Anyway, I’m sure you can imagine it,” she murmured, setting her empty champagne flute on the stair below and gazing into it.  “She was unemployed, on drugs.  A complete mess if there wasn’t a man in her life or at least her bed that week.  It’s weird – I feel like I can’t recall a single image of her eating.”  She laughed but I was sure she found nothing funny.  “It was like – bottle or needle, bottle or needle.  That was what she subsisted on.  I thought maybe that was the secret to not being hungry so I was like, four years old, for God’s sake, when I tried drinking what I’m pretty sure was whisky.  Spit it all out.  She smacked me right across the face for wasting her shit.”

My insides burned hot.  I hated this Trish with everything inside me but I continued bottling it all up so Lake could have the peace with which to keep talking.  When she looked up at me, I leaned in and pressed my lips to her forehead.  She closed her eyes.

“She asked me to send her money to get away from her new husband.”

When I pulled back, she was looking into my eyes with shame.  I figured it out before she said it and suddenly, it made so much sense I wondered why I never thought of it on my own.  It was for Trish that Lake used to steal from us.

“Your mom gave me a credit card to use for emergencies.  You had one, too.”

“Yeah.”

“Except you actually only used yours for emergencies, which you basically never had,” she smirked, shaking her head at herself.  “Even before Trish started messaging me, I took that thing and got myself mani-pedis with Isabel so many times.  I was such a little asshole.  But your mom was like, ‘Who says nice nails aren’t an emergency?’”

I laughed.  “That sounds about right.”

“Anyway.”  The slit in Lake’s dress fell wide open as she hugged her knees to her chest.  “Trish said she needed money, so I started buying things with the card that Theo was gonna buy anyway.  He’d just give me the cash for it and your mom would just think I was buying him a lot of presents.  And that seemed to work.  She thought we were cute.  But then I went too far and she finally had a talk with me.  And even though I knew I was always pushing her to her limits, the second she got mad at me for anything, I turned into this… depressed, kicked puppy.”  Lake snorted at herself.  “I said to myself after that – no.  Never again with the credit card.  I can’t handle when Caroline’s mad at me so I’m going to find another way.  I felt like I had to.  Trish always said she couldn’t wait for the day that she’d see my graduation photos but at some point, she started talking crazy, like she was afraid she wouldn’t make it to see that day.”

“Because of her husband?”

“Dean.  He was a vet and she said he had really bad PTSD.  She sent me this article from this assault charge he got.  They lived in this trailer park and he was the manager of it and the article said he…” she trailed off and suddenly looked with guilt at me.  “Sent someone to the hospital with a baseball bat.  But it was different from you.  That guy ended up brain-dead.”

Christ.

“Am I scaring you yet?” she asked, her voice small.

“No.”  I gave her some sort of look to lighten the mood.  “You don’t scare me.”

“You’re not mad that I took so much shit from you and your mom and sold it to give to my horrible family?”

“That wasn’t your family.  We were your family.”

“Exactly,” she murmured, shaking her head.  “So why did I do it? I don’t know why I ever let her talk to me.  I should’ve known she was poison.  Real…. hateful… bloodsucking poison.”

I took one look at Lake’s fast-falling expression and pulled her tight.  “Come here.”  I buried a kiss in her hair.  “That was a complicated situation.  You were young and she was blood.  Anyone would’ve felt at least some obligation.”

“She was horrible though.  She was nice at first but then she got so mean and I still let her into my life.  Why was I such a stupid teenager?”

“Because that’s redundant.  Every teenager is stupid.”

“You never were.”  Lake’s lips grazed mine as she lifted her head at me.  “You were always so smart and even and logical.  You were mature beyond your years because I was crazy and your mom was crazy and you had to be.  You were perfect for me but it was a punishment to you.”

I frowned at her.  “Never once.”  I tilted my head to meet her roving gaze so filled with shame.  “Lake.  You were never anything but a blessing to me.  Even when you were away because it made me build things I couldn’t have if you were here.  Maybe I needed you to be gone for a little bit.  So I wasn’t distracted.”  I laughed when she did, like it was some ridiculous suggestion.  But I meant it.  “And now that I have you again, I know to hold on tighter than ever before.  I have you back.  I have my mom back.  I have my career.  It’s going good, Lake,” I whispered with a grin.  “You’re not a punishment.  You’re worth everything.”

She melted into me, her words a sigh in my neck.  “I always will be?”

“You know that.”

It was at that point that Oz and Isabel found us and demanded we return to the party.  They were hammered and Logan was nowhere in sight, which meant that he was neglected as usual.  I wanted to stay where we were but Lake said we couldn’t leave poor Logan alone for much longer, so we went to find him and have a toast the five of us.  We downed our shots and Lake immediately suggested another round.  I wondered if she was using the alcohol as a bailout but I didn’t press the matter.  It was her birthday.  So we did a second toast and then a third and a fourth and by now, Oz and I were looking at our own Scotch like it was bottled torture.

“Partied hard after you left me, didn’t you, Callum?” Ana’s question perked Lake’s eyebrows but I knew she had too much pride to show more curiosity than that.  I kept my expression unreadable for all.

“We had a good time.”

“I hope you haven’t exhausted yourself too much to give me some good stuff.  Of course, I’m used to you refusing me the good stuff these days.”  Her voice dripped with the sexual context only we knew.  Oz frowned at her, Lake at me.  Ana just smiled innocently and cocked her head.  “Quick talk with you, Mr. Pike? Itinerary’s back there.”

I followed her to the back of the jet, containing my anger.  “Thought you were big on professionalism.”

“And I thought this was a business trip.  What is she doing here?”

“It’s her birthday.  I’ll be spending time with her when work is over.”

“I don’t need her causing distraction.”

“As of now, that’s entirely your doing.”

Ana simpered.  “Well, let’s hope it stays that way because while your company is rising fast, it’s by no means top dog and you won’t settle for anything but the best.  At least the Callum I know wouldn’t.  Then again, he also wouldn’t bring his fuck buddy to a business trip and make me consider scrapping his piece and writing about his competitors.”  She pushed the itinerary in my hands.  “Think about what you’re sacrificing here.  Look at her and ask yourself if it’s worth it.  Because girls like that? With nothing else to focus on? Their drama never stops.”  Ana stretched her lips into a grin and straightened my tie before returning to the front of the jet.  “And considering the completely generic birthday gift you plan to give her, it doesn’t seem like you’re all that passionate for the girl in the first place.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Lake

 

There was something about Ana.

She’d seemed simply flirty the last time I saw her at The Pike but the way she spoke to Callum on the jet confirmed that it was something well beyond that.  I knew it but I kept my mouth shut because we were all in the same space and I didn’t want to give her the pleasure of looking so much as curious let alone threatened.  I just smiled through the tense air, which I knew I didn’t imagine because Oz kept shooting me looks like is something weird? What the hell is going on? I could only shrug and pretend I was unfazed.  All I knew was Ana looked smug, Callum looked irritated and neither of them were saying a thing.

Thankfully, Oz went into Oz mode and lightened up the mood with his account of how he and Callum first met in Scotland.  He gathered us round for story time and I took more pleasure than usual in sitting on Callum’s lap.  “How cute,” Ana remarked.  I could tell she didn’t mean it but I returned the saccharine smile she gave me and listened to Oz revisit the birth of the bromance.

They’d been at the same pub in Dufftown and struck up a conversation because the place actually had an old bottle of Pike Single Malt and Oz was drinking it.  Callum was surprised because the family distillery had gone under ruin, declared bankruptcy ages ago, had long stopped distributing and had exhausted itself in the fight to recover thousands of perfectly good barrels of whisky from the bank.  The company, barely a company anymore, was in shambles until Callum stepped in at the mere age twenty-four, determined to revive it though no one thought he could.  He was young.  But he did have years of business experience under his young belt thanks to the fact that he skipped college and started a prestigious internship at eighteen.

“Well, I found out about his predicament and I said, ‘Funny I should meet you then, since I come from a bloodline of alcoholics who build distilleries.’  I made a homemade whisky still when I was sixteen.  I kept it in my room,” Oz said, knocking back a full two fingers of Scotch like it was water.  “I mean it’s a little fucking tragic but I very well may have been nursed on the stuff because my mother reached for the bottle the second those wretched nine months were over.  But I turned out okay, I was a strong baby.  They tell me I delivered myself.”

“Legend says he walked out of the womb at four feet tall.”  Callum’s remark made me spit out my water.  Oz nodded seriously as if to say it’s true.  I honestly had no idea how Ana was distinguishing the true from the false for her story.  I was laughing too hard to even try.

“Now this – this is the part that convinced me that Callum was a good man and I had to hang onto this fellow.”

“Oh God.”

“See, there was this girl at the pub.  I was by no means interested in her but eh, I had sex with her last week anyway because, pfft,” he looked in his big hands for an answer, “I don’t know, she was pretty and when she took her shirt off I forgot that she had a history of stalking and breaking and entering, so you know, she was there that day.  And she was trying to take me home again even though the last time wasn’t very good.  She had this little cunt of a cat that had no hair and it was givin’ me growlers while she was going down on me and I’d been drinking that time since well before noon so I looked in its eyes and I felt… like it was telling me something.”

Callum’s forehead hit my shoulder as he laughed.  Even Ana was starting to lose her business poise as she giggled.

“I don’t know.  It’s possible I dropped acid that day too but I swear to God that hairless cat was saying, ‘Fucking save me, Osborne.  Take me away from this wretched woman.  She’s a crazy one.’  I swear I heard it.  He said, ‘I can’t live another minute with her, she’s mad.  I was happy before I met her.  I had hair before I met her and now look at me, I’m a fucking bald headed bastard.’  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”

“Were you hearing it?” Callum objected.

“I couldn’t believe what I imagined I was hearing.  I was so horrified and I believed this woman was crazy because I’d seen it with my own two eyes.  I knew I had to get out of this situation because I didn’t want to end up a hairless bastard.  So I stole the cat and I left.”  Ana gasped.  Oz laughed and clarified that he did not actually steal the cat.  “No, I ran out without the ugly thing but it was one of the worst sexual experiences to date for me and for some reason this girl was still flirting with me the next week so I turned to Callum, I said, ‘Hey, mate, it’s been a pleasure talking to you and I’d like to continue this lovely conversation but I’ve got to escape that pretty girl over there because she’s a wee bit crazy and her bald cat is pure Satan,’ and it made no sense whatsoever to Callum but he said, ‘Say no more,’ and fuckin’ off we went.  Hand-in-hand, into the sunset.”

Ana burst out laughing so hard she fell onto Callum’s shoulder.  I overlooked it because I had to – we were all dying.

“I need to contest the hand-in-hand part but yeah, it was around sunset.”

“And the friendship was real enough for Cal to overlook the bit about the Satan cat.”

“Which he did explain at the next bar,” Callum said, holding me against his chest as he wiped his eyes with the knuckle of his thumb.  Ana was a limp mess of giggles on the couch.  Once again, I ignored the way she grabbed Callum’s thigh to get back up.  I was in too good a mood from the story and it carried all the way over to the hotel, a charming cottage that overlooked a bright green hill and the ruins of a Fourteenth century castle.  I was gazing out our breathtaking window when Callum came up behind me.

“Hey.”  I turned to see him grinning with his hands behind his back.  “Give me your hand.”  I did and he clasped a sparkling, rose gold bangle around my wrist.  “Happy birthday.”  My mouth parted as I stared down in awe of the rose-cut gems, gleaming with a life of their own.  “In case you’re ever crazy enough to think you aren’t worth it, you can look in the mirror while you’re wearing this and see that you upstage diamonds you’re so fucking perfect.”

My fingers touched to my lips as I admired it over my skin.  I wasn’t sure if it was the bracelet or his words that had me feeling more radiant than the precious stones.  “It’s so beautiful, Callum,” I breathed.  He smiled and brought me to the edge of the bed, holding both my hands.

“I’m going to try to make the shoot go by as fast as possible today.  I’m going to make sure I’ll make it to dinner with you,” he said.  Ana claimed the photographer had an emergency and had to leave early, which meant portraits had to be pushed up to my birthday.  Callum had planned for most of the day off but now he was going to be tied up till well into the evening.  I had a feeling Ana had something to do with the change of plans but I refused to let it upset me because I was in Scotland, for God’s sake, and everything around me was beautiful.  I could easily spend the day exploring and end my evening with a romantic dinner with Callum.  I wanted to finally accommodate his work schedule so it was perfect, really.

“I have a whole list of places I want to see, so don’t stress about rushing.  Just make sure you’ll be around to give me at least the last few hours of my birthday together.”

He kissed me.  “That won’t be a problem.”

* * *

I was sure my mood was radiating from my cheeks as I skipped out of the hotel.  I had a long, dusty pink sweater on that matched my new bracelet from Callum and there were rose-colored threads in the knee-high socks I wore under my long suede boots.  I felt like a walking smile.  I hardly minded that I walked ten minutes before realizing I’d forgotten my wallet at the hotel.  There was still a bounce in my step as I walked through the front doors but I slowed down when I heard Ana’s distinct drawl behind the wall of the lobby bar.

“I just wouldn’t have seen you with a girl like her.  She seems… obvious.  Vapid pretty girl.  Not a whole lot up here but enough right here to distract you from that.”

I froze next to the entrance, on the other side of the wall she sat against.  My body was immediately tense and I prayed right away that Ana was just on the phone.  With a friend.  Maybe an ex.  But the sentence that followed dashed what little hope I had for that.

“You seemed too smart to fall for that kind of superficial trap, Callum.”

My heart pounded at his name and the pain built in my chest as he took his time to respond.

“You seem to think you know me well for someone who met me five months ago.”

“I do know you better than any of the other women you’re generous enough to give the time of day to.  For starters, I’ve been interviewing you for months.  Then there’s the fact that we’ve been fucking regularly since April.”

The pain in my chest sank like a knife to my stomach.

Fucking.  Regularly.

Since April.

I clutched the wall, my brain sinking instantly into a dark well that crawled with red flags and confirmed suspicions.  So I wasn’t being at all paranoid that night at The Pike – the night that Callum and I had sex for the first time since I came back.  There was something between him and Ana.  Something significant.

I heard Callum’s short laugh.  “That doesn’t do much to prove that you know me.  I’ve slept with a lot of women.”

“You haven’t given many interviews to the Times though.”  It was quiet for a second and I knew the triumphant “mm” Ana hummed was a response to Callum’s silence.  “Let’s not forget the fact that you’d just taken your cock out of me when you got a text and said, ‘Fuck this, you’ve got to be kidding.’  Couldn’t help but observe that you weren’t exactly excited for her to come back.  I mean – hmm.  What else did you say? That she was ‘poison’? That she didn’t ‘belong’ in your life? You suspected from the jump that she was going to be a burden and an embarrassment to you and what do you know – you were right.”

With those words, I went dizzy.

I was poison.  A burden.  I didn’t belong.  They were my more paranoid suspicions but here they were, confirmed by the smug lips of Ana Hale from the Times.  I was seething, humiliated but I couldn’t hide behind the wall anymore.  I stiffly turned the corner and stood there before them, waiting to be noticed, the tears in my eyes clouding every bit of my vision aside from Callum, his chair and his stupid Scotch in his hand.

“Oh, Christ.”  I heard Ana’s groan. I didn’t have to see her face to know that she’d seen me.  I hated the pang of shame I felt and refused to back away, watching in slow motion as Callum turned around.  The second his eyes settled on me, he let out a very long, very guilty breath.  God.  Damn it, Callum.  I shook my head at him, disgust creeping into my fury and betrayal emanating from the pit of my closing throat.

“I don’t belong in your life?” I whispered, staring at him, unable to believe the cold, icy look in his eye as he rose to his feet, grabbed my forearms and walked me backward.

“Not now, Lake.”

“What the hell, Callum?” I breathed, reading nothing but anger in the vacant stare he gave me.  God, I hated it.  I always had but in this moment, I hated that look a million times more than I ever had in my life.  “You were sleeping with Ana? Since April? You told her about me? What else did you tell her? How long were you going to keep this a secret?”

“Lake, I’m not talking about this.  I have work to do.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the cameras are in there – they’re setting up right now.”  I looked past his tightly flexed arm, where his finger pointed.  I saw the rest of the lounge my tear-filled vision had missed a second before.  Aside from Ana, there was a photographer.  A lighting crew.  I saw Oz turned around in his seat at the bar.  The man serving him his drink was frozen with him.  Every last person in there was turned to me, staring.  Gaping.  Joining my fury now was mortification and that very embarrassment Ana had mentioned.  I looked back to Callum and down at his fingers wrapped around my wrists, trying desperately to pull me out of sight.  To hide me.

“Do I belong in your life, Callum?” I whispered the question.

“Don’t do this to me.”

“Just answer me.”

“I won’t.”

My heart twisted at the bite with which he enunciated his words.  It started sinking slowly under my shrinking ribs, getting sucked into that bitter quicksand.  Still, I tried to fight the pull.  My wet eyes flicked back and forth between Callum and Ana as she came up behind him, leaning in the doorframe, cocking an eyebrow at me and tapping the platinum watch on her wrist.  Tick tock.  I could almost hear her saying it.  Drawling it.

Tick tock.

The words brought me suddenly back to Sunstone – flashed images of my stepfather before my eyes.  They asked me if I’d fought and clawed and come back for nothing.  If I was wrong to think I belonged anywhere else but there.  “Callum.”  I hated that my tears were spilling in front of everyone and most of all, that woman.  I tried to lower my voice so she couldn’t hear me.  “Just tell me, Callum,” I demanded under my breath. “Tell me if you mean it.  If you think I’m poison.”

“Lake – Christ.”  He released my wrists and I stumbled back.  I could feel the shock and hurt in my face as he glared at me, an inferno of white-hot flames blazing behind those wolfish blue eyes.  “You’re demanding answers?” Callum’s growl was low, from his chest.  “Go ahead.  Demand them.  But then so will I.  I’ve waited too goddamned long, Lake, so if you wanna play this game, let’s play it.  But you’re going to give me the truth first.  Tell me the fucking secret – whatever it is – right here, right now.  Tell me what you’re so fucking certain I can’t get past.”

Silence hung in the air till Ana lilted.

“Please do.”

“Shut up,” Callum snarled at her without tearing his eyes from me.  “Go, Lake.  Say it.  Tell me now.”

I couldn’t breathe. I looked at her and then him.  I had no idea where to start and all I could see was the horrific end I’d caused to be able to come back.  Something escaped my lips.  I wasn’t sure if it was a word and suddenly, Ana was marching forward and reaching for Callum.

“I can’t watch another second of this bullshit,” she hissed.  “We need to start, Callum.  She’s wasting your time and she’s never even going to be your girlfriend, you said it yourself.”

Her bombshell stung my skin.  Every inch of it.  My eyes flickered to Callum and I stared at him, pleading a silent question but he didn’t answer me, and he didn’t refute her.  Only then did I realize how many more awful and humiliating things he could’ve told her.  Ana read the shock on my face and cooed.

“Unless I recall incorrectly.  But didn’t you say that, Callum?” She asked him but tilted her head at me.  “That she’d never be your girlfriend?” My eyes returned to Callum just in time for his cold answer.

“Yes.”

It was all I needed to hear to walk – no, run out the door.