The arsehole had the audacity to look up at my approach and grin, totally oblivious to his wrongdoing. I did not smile back.
His expression fell.
I looked at the redhead. She scowled at me as if to say, “And you are?”
Therefore, I answered her out loud. I lifted my ring finger, letting the sapphire wink in the light. “I’m the fiancée.”
Her expression turned ashen as she turned to glower at Baird. “You’re an arsehole.” Then she stood and shook her head. “I’m so sorry. But you should know he’s an arsehole and good luck with that.” The redhead grabbed her backpack and hurried away, cheeks blazing.
To my shock, Baird was on the cusp of erupting into laughter. “What. Was. That?”
Was he kidding me?
I dumped my bag and took the seat the redhead had vacated. That stupid smile disappeared at whatever he recognized in my expression. “You promised me that I was safe with you,” I hissed at him. “This is a big bloody lie we’re about to tell the whole world. And you promised I was safe. I used to only be semi-joking about it being a physical impossibility for you to not flirt with everything that moves … but now I am seriously worried that you’re going to mess this up. We’re both on dangerous ground with this lie. We cannot screw it up and get caught with other people.”
Baird scowled. “My, I was only flirting with her. That doesn’t equate to sex, to cheating.”
I tried to ignore the flash of hurt or what the hell it meant. I didn’t want to think about it too deeply. “That’s not how other people see it. If Will flirted with other women in front of me, it would have not only pissed me off, it would’ve hurt my feelings. Very badly. People in serious relationships, unless otherwise agreed upon, don’t do that to each other.” I slumped in the chair and gazed across the mostly empty cafeteria. Dread settled in my gut. “I knew this would be your Achilles heel, and still I agreed to it.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” he demanded.
My brows nearly hit my hairline at his tone. “You know what it means. You don’t have a monogamous bone in your body.Mywhole body is full of them! In the real world, you and I would never be in a relationship for that very reason. And the idea of constantly having to remind you that you’re supposed to be pretending to be the antithesis of commitment-phobic exhausts me.”
Baird gaped, stunned. His reaction confused me because I didn’t think I’d said anything we both didn’t already know. Then he practically whispered, “Is that what you think? Is that what you’ve thought of me this whole time we’ve been friends?”
“Eh, have you ever tried being monogamous? I don’t think so. Do you flirt with anything that offers you a smile? I do think so.”
“Don’t be condescending, Maia.” Baird suddenly pushed up from the table, his expression blank in a way I’d never seen. “I have to get to training.”
It took me so long to compute what was happening, he was halfway across the cafeteria when I thought to shout, “Bear!”
“We’ll talk later,” he said over his shoulder.
Then he was gone.
My cheeks burned as the two girls at the next table stared at me. I turned away and muttered to myself, “How the hell am I the bad guy?”
CHAPTER TEN
BAIRD
The last time I was in this foul a mood was not long after my injury. In fact, I think this mood was fouler than that. Baumann and I nearly got into it in training when he started taking the piss out of me about my quick engagement to Maia. He kept saying shit about how many women I’d slept with and asking what was so special about Maia. When he used the wordpussyin relation to her, I lost my mind. Callan and John had to hold me back. Thankfully, the gaffer had been near and heard, and Baumann got a fine for being a prick.
The truth was I was only this enraged with him because I was angry at myself.
And confused.
This whole time Maia had thought me incapable of being a one-woman man.
I’d never even crossed her mind as a viable candidate to be her man.
I’m fucking down bad at the gym and she’s not only oblivious, she’s impervious!
Ainsley was right.
I’d gone into this whole scheme like a cocky bastard, absolutely sure I now had a clear path to making Maia fall for me. There was even a part of me that hoped My already had feelings for me, ones she’d kept locked up tight because of Will.
But nah.
