How did sheknow?
“He did,” she said. “Wow, guess some things never change.”
“It’s not like that,” Julian responded, unsure who he was trying to convince anymore.
“Hey, I get it. He’s charming, he’s easy to fall for. And you guys have history, right?”
Julian nodded automatically, regretting it the moment he did. The last thing he wanted was to prolong this conversation. He wanted to run to Isaac and…
And…
Crap.
He wanted to ask. About this.
Because some part of him was starting to genuinely doubt his best friend, and all it’d taken was a few key details.
Guilt and anxiety swirled in his gut, making him feel sick. He wanted to cry, or scream, or… anything, anything to distract himself from the way his head was spinning.
“I wasn’t sure about playing this for you, but… I saved a clip of a voicemail he left me,” Adriana said. “One begging me to come back to him when this was all over.”
Julian swallowed. She couldn’tpossiblyhave anything like that, could she? This was a bluff. She was hoping he’d say he didn’t want to hear it, that he’d just believe her to protect himself.
No. Doubts aside, he didn’t believe Isaac would do that. That was too much.
“Play it,” Julian demanded, intending to catch her out and put his mind at ease.
Adriana took her phone out, tapping on it a few times, turning the volume up, and then tapping again.
“Gonna dump Julian the minute the tournament’s over,” Isaac’s voice said through the phone speaker.
Julian’s stomach went cold. The voice was a little distorted, but phones did that, and… he’d said Julian’s name. It couldn’t just be someone who sounded like him, or an old recording, or…
Tears pricked at Julian’s eyes, but he didn’t plan on shedding any of them. Hecouldn’t, not in front Adriana.
He still didn’t trust her, but… it was hard to deny what he’d just heard.
Harder still to deny the panic rising in his chest, the fear that what she was saying was true, that Julian really was playing him.
“He doesn’t love anyone but himself,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
Julian’s head was spinning. He wanted…
He wanted Isaac. To talk to him, to beg him to tell him it wasn’t true, that the softI love youthey’d exchanged last night was real, and not just to keep him on-side through the rest of the tournament.
Not just insurance against this happening, maybe? If Adriana was telling the truth, maybe she’d told Isaac that she planned on telling Julian what he’d said.
Isaac wouldn’t do that, would he?
For the first time, Julian wasn’t sure. He couldn’t handle the thought that Isaac might hurt him like that. That he might becapableof hurting him like that. Isaac was his best friend.
Wasn’t he?
