“Are you okay? You’re scaring me.”
“Did you or did you not come to this island intending to seek me out?”
“Where is this coming from?”
“Answer the question, Arik. Yes or no?”
“I told you how I ended up here.”
“I believe it. You saw the show and decided to check the island out. Farfetched for many, but not you. But did you do it because ofme?”
“I remembered you were from the island,” he said. His words were slow. Deliberate. Thoughtful. Almost too much.
“And you hoped to see me?” she asked.
“Of course. We had a start of something years ago. I’ve thought of you over the years.”
The first he’d said that. Or along those lines.
“When you came here, did you hope for this? For us to be in this situation?”
“Where are all these questions coming from?” he asked.
“Yes or no, Arik?”
“Fine,” he said. “I’ve thought of you for years. I don’t believe you if you say you haven’t thought of me.”
She had, in passing, just wondering how he turned out.
“Not enough to search you out!”
The pain etched across his face pierced her chest.
She didn’t want to hurt him, but she had to be honest.
This was huge to her.
She felt deceived in the worst way imaginable.
“Well, I wanted to see you. I wanted to know how your life turned out. If you were in a relationship or married, I would have said hi, stayed my month and moved on.”
“But I wasn’t. And you used that fact. You used me.”
“Whoa,” he said. “There was no using anyone. I asked you to lunch. We talked. I asked you on a date. No one held a gun to your head to get in bed with me.”
“The wedding? The fake relationship? All of it.Youridea.”
“No. You came up with the idea and I just built on it.”
“Don’t play games.”
“I’m not! Why is this coming up now? The truth. I just told you. I wanted to see if what I felt for you years ago was still there. It was. Harder. Deeper. More intense. You know. You felt it. But you can’t say I begged you to get in my bed. You made that step. Not me. We did all of this together. Everything. Even our child. Together.”
“You could have told me the truth months ago rather than for me to find out from your mother.”
“My mother?” he asked. “What are you talking about?”
She threw the papers at him. “This! Everything feels like a lie.”
