He stares back, utterly unrepentant.
Something clicks into place. A pattern I should have seen earlier.
The unicorn onesie that just happened to be the most humiliating option possible. The dancing. The cat face.
None of this is random. None of this has ever been random.
He’s fucking with me. I’ve suspected it for a while, but it’s worse than I thought.
Because he’s fucking with me in this wide-eyed, long-lashed way that makes him look like an evil thought has never crossed his brain.
The kids line up for their turn for face painting, and I watch him interact with the children, all warmth and sunshine and enthusiasm. He’s crouched over a small girl’s face, painting a butterfly and murmuring instructions to hold still in a voice so gentle it’s hard to reconcile with the man who spends so much time orchestrating my public humiliation.
Everyone loves Captain Giggles. Everyone trusts him. How could you not? He’s so open, so genuine, so transparently delightful.
Except.
Except I’ve seen the books under his desk. The observation skills he tries to hide. The way he deflects every question about his past with a joke and a subject change.
He knew exactly how uncomfortable I would be retrieving items from his nightstand drawer. And he enjoyed it.
He’s…toying with me. There is no other word for it.
In hindsight, Archie’s been setting me up for his amusement from the very start, then sitting back to watch the show.
He’s such a bundle of sunshine that no one would suspect a dubious thought to ever cross his mind.
But the thing is, this is a familiar pattern for me.
Because isn’t this exactly what happened with Vaughn? He sensed my weakness, the fact that I was out of my comfort zone, lonely in a new job, and then pretended to be my friend so he could exploit me as part of his own game.
It turns out Archie is just another Mansley, pretending to be something he’s not.
I’ve been here before, got the T-shirt.
The party continues and Archie continues to shine. He charms a skeptical toddler into giggles with nothing but a funny face and a silly voice. He turns a tantrum into a teachable moment so smoothly that the parents look at each other in amazement.
He’s brilliant at this. Genuinely brilliant.
And I get the feeling that Archie Mansley’s smarts don’t just stop at his job as a children’s entertainer, and he’s currently directing all of that intelligence into working out the optimum ways to humiliate me.
But even as I think that, I remember the shower. The way his voice broke when he said thank you with no punchline attached. The way he looked at me after, like he’d accidentally shown me something he hadn’t meant to.
Was that part of the game too?
I don’t know. And that’s what’s making this dangerous. Because with Vaughn, I never doubted him. I trusted him completely and got burned. With Archie, I’ve spotted the manipulation, but I can also see the moments where it has stopped and something else has come through.
Maybe it’s time to play him at his own game. And find out which version of Archie Mansley is actually real.
Chapter Fourteen
Archie
I’m waiting for Leo outside the Natural History Museum.
I’d be pacing if I could, but unfortunately, broken ankles make for shit pacing. The best I can manage is an anxious swivel on my crutches, which lacks a certain gravitas.
Leo had a business meeting this morning. Sometimes, I forget he’s actually in London to work, and not to be my personal lackey, along with my built-in entertainment.
