“Why is that good?” He turns the intensity up to eleven.
“Sorry. Not good. It’s just… she lied about me for so long, but setting that aside?—”
“Oh, setting that aside?”
I level a look at him. “You know what I mean. You loved her. Love her. I don’t know. So it’s not going to be an easy thing to get over.”
She was never right for you! I want to scream it even though it’s not my place. But even by observing them occasionally and from a distance, it was so obvious.
He doesn’t respond right away, instead rubbing his fingers over his mouth.
“Are you and that paramedic together?”
“Who, Omar?” Wyatt recognized the guy who took care of me after the 5K in December? Interesting. My first instinct is to mess with him about it, string out my answer in some way guaranteed to piss him off. But that doesn’t feel right in this moment.
“We were,” I say. “For a bit. It ended a while ago, though.”
He reaches for my hand. It’s hesitant, almost a question, and he says, “Charlotte Jane” in his lovely, low voice.
I’m still deciding if I’ll let him touch me or if I’ll slap his fingers away when the door to the building flies open.
It’s Reese. Wyatt and I spring apart, no doubt looking guilty as sin.
“I knew it.” She advances on him. “You goddamn liar.”
It’s her face contorted in fury for a change, not mine. And also, hell no. I am done letting this bitch trample all over my life.
“You’re calling him the liar?” I laugh. “That’s rich.”
Reese whips toward me. “I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to my fiancé.”
My body phases out of existence again, and when I’m back, I’m in the middle of a reality I recognize all too well.
“That’s weird.” It feels like I’m moving in slow motion as I pivot to Wyatt. ”Because he told me you broke up.”
“Is that what he told you?” Her face twists into a mocking pout. “Oh, sweetie. I know you’ve never been in a serious relationship, but sometimes couples fight. That doesn’t mean it’s over.”
She acts like she’s explaining the rules of a complicated game to a child.
And maybe she is. When Wyatt speaks again, it’s clear that I don’t understand this game at all.
“She and I were having a work conversation,” Wyatt says. “And you and I broke up.”
“Bullshit.” She stalks toward Wyatt, her eyes burning. “You swore there was nothing between you two, but I fucking knew you were lying.”
“What are you—” He straightens, disgust crawling over his face. “Reese, no. This isn’t what it looks like. I’m not a cheater.”
“Excuse me?” I say sharply. “What does this look like, Wyatt?”
“Nothing.” He glances at me, then back to Reese just as quickly. “It’s not like that with her and me. Never has been.”
“Bullshit!” Reese says louder. “You’re meeting her in an alley behind a bar on a Friday night, you fucking cheater.”
“We’ve been over this, Reese!” he explodes. “It was one night six years ago. One night. I didn’t even take her home. And then you and I fell in love, and that was it.” He waves an arm in my direction but doesn’t bother to look at me. “There’s nothing here.”
I press my hands to my ears to block out how fucking dismissive he sounds at the idea. How he’s rewriting our history and erasing that night because he’s still tangled up with this horrible woman.
Well, fuck him. I’d rather be pissed than sad. I let my hands drop as I welcome in the reckless fury that ended with Wyatt taking an ice bath and with me limping around on a crutch last New Year’s Eve.
