Her voice trailed away as she shrugged again, her attention not wavering from my face.
It was just a business thing. I mean, how many times had I been taken out by a company for lunch or dinner? Not all business was conducted in an office. I knew that.
And … and that was all Jessy had been doing.
‘So, now you get it,’ Jessy said ruefully, folding her arms across her chest and wincing slightly. ‘Kinda sucks that it took Dillon – a guy – speaking to you for you to believe me, instead of just listening when I asked you to. I tried messaging you, but you blocked me. I thought you knew me better than that.’
The horror of what I’d done – of how quickly I’d assumed the worst, and not given Jessy even half a chance to explain – was still trickling through to me.
I took a deep breath before saying what I should have started with. ‘Jessy, I’m sorry. If I had known –’
‘Yeah, I’m sure you are, now.’ She brushed off my apology as though it didn’t matter. ‘Are you going to apologize for that shit you chatted about me and your mum?’
Cassie. ‘No.’ The pictures with the other men might have been misconstrued, but there was nothing that justified Jessy meeting with my mother behind my back. And there never would be.
Her eyes were cold. ‘Then I think you were right.’
I blinked, unable to follow. ‘Right?’
Jessy’s nod was brief, perfunctory. ‘Yeah, this contract is over. No more fake dating. No more anything. I’m so done with you – with this. It’s over.’
I had said the same thing to Derek only hours ago, yet hearing my own words repeated back at me still cut deep.
‘Laura’s app has got all the good publicity it’s going to get,’ Jessy continued, her words coming from a long way away, ‘and, from what I can see, your record label won’t be too upset this whole thing didn’t work out. I mean, people date and break up all the time, right? Nothing newsworthy about this coming to an end.’ She said it like it was so simple. Like we hadn’t spent weeks in each other’s pockets.
Am I ready to give that up?
‘And you … you hurt me.’ Jessy’s lips lifted, but it wasn’t a smile. ‘Shit, Patrick, you immediately believed the absolute worst of me. If that had been you, I would never –’
I forced myself to speak. ‘I know. The pictures were just so convincing. You looked like you were having fun with them and it … it made my blood boil.’ I had never had a problem with jealousy, but the anger that had spread through me at the thought of Jessy out on dates with those men, it had truly surprised me. I’d put it down to her betrayal at first, but the longer I interrogated my feelings, the more I realized I’d been equal parts angry and jealous.
Jessy was mine. I didn’t want to share her.
‘And what about the way you spoke about my mum? What possible excuse could you have for that?’
I winced. I’d been out of line there. ‘I should never have said those things, Jessy. You didn’t deserve that, no matter how upset I was.’
‘I don’t want to date a guy who doesn’t trust me,’ Jessy said after a pause, her voice layered with more emotion now. ‘I refuse to, actually. I don’t want someone who thinks I’d be capable of being unfaithful to them.’
‘Jessy –’
‘Or to be with a guy who doesn’t trust me to be seen with other men in public. That’s the kind of shit Ross used to –’ Jessy halted herself, covering her mouth just for a moment before letting it drop. ‘And I deserve better than that.’
‘I know. I know you do.’ How had my fears managed to twist what was already so good? ‘But it just felt so close to what Celine had done to me. It was like it was happening all over again.’ Surely she could see how I’d been triggered.
‘I am not Celine.’ Jessy stepped forward, her eyes full of hurt. ‘You should have trusted me!’
Her outrage felt so misplaced, I couldn’t help but fire back, ‘What, like I trusted you about Cassie? Only for you to go and meet with her!’
Anger sparked in her eyes, and she looked me dead on as she said, ‘And where exactly do you think I would have found your mother? Seeing as I’ve never even seen a picture of her?’
‘I don’t know.’ I hadn’t given much thought to how the two had met, too enraged every time I thought about them to interrogate it. What did it matter how it started? ‘I figured she must have found you on socials –’
‘She approached me on the street and asked for a photo. I didn’t even know who she was!’ Jessy snapped, her temper finally getting the better of her. ‘Laura was with me, she can tell you – the woman didn’t give me her name, how the fuck was I supposed to know who she was? What, you want me to ask for proof of name and address for everyone who approaches me? I thought she was a fan.’ Her voice broke. ‘She said she was a fan of yours.’
Oh … oh shit.
That sounded exactly like my mother. It was exactly the kind of underhand thing Cassie would do.
