Including Kayla and Dwayne.
Somewhere in the distance, cheering broke out, with quite a few French men chanting my name. But I could barely hear them.
Everything went quiet in my head as Kayla walked toward me. Her expression was horrified and disoriented. Like someone who had just witnessed a bombing.
“All these people chanting your name?” She shook her head at me. “And according to Dwayne, there’s pictures and video—actual video of me all over the sports gossip sites?”
“Kayla, let me explain. There’s been a misunderstandin’ between us from the beginnin’.”
“No, you don’t need to let him explain nothin’, Kay!” Dwayne insisted beside her. “Let your lawyers explain when you sue him for everything he’s got!”
Kayla threw him an annoyed glance. “Stop, Dwayne. You are not a part of this. This is between me andAndy, and I just need to understand….”
She turned back to me, her eyes completely devoid of the love that had shined so clearly in them the night before at the Eiffel Tower. “So when you told me you were an electrician, that was amisunderstanding?”
“I said I came from a family of electricians. Never said I took that path meself.”
“And when I told youexplicitlythat I would never want to date a pro athlete?” Kayla’s expression fluctuated, as if a s was threatening to erupt underneath her face. “Was that a misunderstanding, too?”
Brain scrambling, I dredged pieces of the speech I’d planned to make last night.
“I hoped that if you got to know me…”
“Youhopedthat if I got to know you, I wouldn’t mind you lying to me from the very beginning?” Kayla exploded. “Because that’s what you did! There was never any Tourmaline prize package. You went out of your way to convince me you are someone you’re not. And apparently, you even got the entire French soccer team to help you do it. All so you could… what?!”
She threw her arms out to the side. “Get in my pants?”
“I mean, the Tourmaline Group did front the bill for the hotel suite and the flight,” I said cos that was the only point I could really refute.
Christ, this was getting out of hand.
Kayla was looking at me like I was a murderer of small children. And I could see several phones pointed in our direction out the side of my eye—a few of which, no doubt, were set to record.
“You lied to me!” Kayla’s sweet voice went guttural and ugly. “From the beginning! Will you at least admit to that?”
The utter disappointment in her eyes was so disheartening, it actually made me want to lie to her again.
A thousand new fibs sprang to my mind—anything to keep her, to preserve what we had. I thought of how happy we had both been just a few hours ago, and desperation nearly overtook me.
But in the end, I knew I couldn’t.
Cos there was one thing I’d said that had been the complete and utter truth.
I loved her. I truly did.
Too much to continue with this charade, even though I knew what a full confession would cost me.
“Yeah, Kayla, I lied to you,” I admitted in front of her ex and everybody else watching with their phones out. “I lied to you. I’ve been lyin’ to you this whole time. Cos, Kayla, I knew…”
I swallowed the bitter truth down. “I knew that if I told you everythin’, you wouldn’t understand that I was the exception to your new rule. You’d push me away cos you’re afraid. Even last night, when you claimed to love me, I knew you didn’t really mean it. Not truly.”
Kayla’s face contorted with fury. “I only claimed to love you because I didn’t have any idea who you were!”
“You know exactly who I am!” I exploded back. “You are the only woman I have ever shown the real me.”
“Thereal you?” Kayla practically spat the question. “Everything you told me was a lie! I fell in love, way too soon, with a lie!”
“Say what you want, but you know that’s just an excuse,” I insisted, shaking my head.
