“I haven’t, Jace. That would be way too …” She trailed off, a fresh tinge of red staining her pretty cheeks.
I leaned forward, my gaze tracing her features. “Way too …?”
Before she could reply, Dymphna returned with our food. I was a little suspicious of how quickly it had arrived, but then I tasted the soup, and it was decent. We ate in companionable silence for a minute or two, and I decided to let her off the hook. If she was spying on my socials, then that was a good sign, right? It meant she cared enough to snoop.
“I saw your dad in the crowd earlier. Did he come with you?”
Her comment took me off guard. “No, he didn’t. Are you sure it was him?”
“Yes. He was standing back, scanning the crowd like he was searching for someone.”
I shook my head. “Who knows what he’s up to. Remember the time when you, Elias, Angus and I lied and said we were hanging out at your friend, Annie’s, house?”
“Right, but we went into the city to go see that band you all loved,” Shannon recalled with a faint grin.
“And we turned up at the venue only to find my dad standing by the entrance with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.”
“I don’t know why we ever thought we could get one over on him like that. Plus, we were only fifteen. We had no business trying to get into an over eighteen’s show. At least he was a good sport about it and let us stay for a couple songs.”
“It was a fun night,” I said, remembering how young and in love I’d been with her, even back then. I hadn’t told her yet, but she’d been everything I’d ever wanted in a girl. I’d been so terrified to ruin our friendship, so I’d kept my burgeoning feelings to myself.
“Your dad actually emailed me a couple days ago,” she said. “He wants me to send him a list of all the people in my lifewho could possibly be the catfish, so he’s obviously deep into his investigation.”
“He did?” I asked, a little annoyed. “I’m sorry. I’ll tell him to back off. It’s clearly no one you know. Far more likely it’s some lunatic from my life.”
“You don’t suspect my friends?” She seemed surprised.
“Not at all. You’re far too selective with your friends, not to mention too good a judge of character. Like I said, if this really is someone we know, it’s a personI’vecrossed paths with. I’d bet good money on it.”
Shannon nodded, soaking up the last of her soup with the crusty bread that came with it. A brief flash of uneasiness passed over her features, which gave me pause.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
“Shannon. Something’s clearly bothering you. Tell me.”
“Well, I’ve always gone out of my way to ensure no one I work with knows you’re my ex.”
“Oh?”
“It’s not because I’m ashamed or anything,” she was quick to explain. “I just like my privacy. Plus, when people find out you know someone famous, it makes them try to befriend you just to get access to that person, and … well, you get it.” I nodded, listening while she fidgeted with the rim of her teacup. “So, I always thought that no one knew, but there’s this one guy, Dean, he’s kind of an arsehole, know-it-all type. I just found out today that his flatmate is a huge Astro fan who watches all the old footage of you guys, and I was in one of the videos, so he figured out we were married.”
“And?” I said, already not liking the sound of this Dean bloke. If Shannon called him an arsehole, then he must be a real piece of work because it took a lot for her to speak poorly ofsomeone. “It’s not a crime to have been married to me, Shannon. It won’t affect your job.”
“No, I know that.”
“So, what?”
She pushed away her teacup and lifted her gaze to me, a mixture of guilt and discomfort on her face. She stared at the table, not looking at me when she confessed, “I kissed Dean once, a couple weeks after the divorce. It was on the way home from our yearly Christmas party. I was drunk and acting out of character, and honestly, I never even liked him. He was just there, and I was going through a bad time emotionally. But ever since, he’s been weirdly focused on me, especially since he asked me out after the kiss, and I declined.”
Fuck, what was this feeling? Pure, unadulterated agony. We were divorced, but I still hated the idea of Shannon kissing another man, especially since if I hadn’t been such a piece of shit, she’d still be mine. So her kissing this prick was technically all my fault, which only made the self-hatred worse.
I managed to swallow down my jealousy and maintain my composure when I said, “Define ‘weirdly focused.’”
At last, she looked up, searching my gaze as though trying to figure out how I was taking this.Badly, Shannon, really fucking badly. But I wouldn’t upset her by letting it show.
“He just acts like I have a crush on him, even thoughIrejected him in the end. I think he might even insinuate to our coworkers that I asked him out, and he was the one to say no. But anyway, I don’t care about that. What’s unsettled me was how he seemed so pleased to reveal he knew you were my ex. It gave me this really awful feeling, and I can’t help but wonder …”
