Page 67 of My Fake Fiancé

“Yes, definitely time.” Tatyana pulls the coffee cake closer to her and continues eating it while washing it down with her coffee.

“I’ll tell him tonight.” I peek up at her to see if she agrees with my idea.

“You should. And do it before you go to dinner or whatever you two are going to do. You don’t want to get his hopes up with the dinner and what might come after it. So yes, do it tonight but early on in the night.”

I nod, agreeing with that plan. “But that’s still in a few hours, let’s take our drinks to go. You can head to the bookstore, and I’ll stop in the post office,” Tatyana says, stacking our plates to make it easier to bus.

“Okay.” I finish my lemon loaf and then scoot out of the booth wrapping a napkin around my drink. We walk out the door and head down the street. A couple of doors down I stop at the bookstore. “I might take a while so come back for me. Or if I finish quickly I’ll come find you.”

“Sounds good. The line shouldn’t be too long this time of day, so I’ll probably be finished before you.” We exchange “See you later” then I go into the bookstore searching for cheap, used books to read.

Chapter 58

Juliana

Sitting on the floor, in the middle of an aisle of books, I have 8 different choices spread out around me. I pick up each once again to read the inside of the cover flap or the back of the book. Then I flip through a couple of pages to see if the condition of the book is decent. I don’t expect perfect conditions because it is a used bookstore, but I don’t want a particularly gross or destroyed book.

While I am looking over the books, I get distracted by the books on the bottom shelf and start sifting through them to see if anything looks interesting. After a few moments of zero noise except the shuffling of books and the turning of pages, the bell above the door goes off but I don’t bother to look up until a shadow falls over the pages of my book.

“Juliana?” A familiar voice questions, laughter at the edges of my name.

“Kurt!” I smile up at him then quickly tamper my happiness. “Hi, can I help you find anything? Well, I don’t work here but I know this place pretty well, so I could probably help you find whatever it is you’re looking for…” I trail off when a goofy smile appears on his face and I realize I am rambling. I blush and look back down at my books to hide my rosy cheeks.

“No, I’m okay, I just saw you in here, on the floor so, I thought I’d stop in to say hello,” he laughs a little and I join in because it is silly to be on the floor. “Oh. Also, I got a text last night and I wanted to know if you knew anything about it?”

He hands his phone down to me and I look at the screen to see a picture and the text below.

Unknown: Do you know where your fiancé is?

I click on the picture and see that it’s a photo of Callum and me on our date from the other night. I’m shocked.

“Who took this? That’s so creepy. What the hell.” I hand him his phone back before I hurl it in anger. Standing up off the floor, I look around to see if anyone is following or taking pictures of me today. “Who would do or send something like that?”

“I’m not sure. That’s why I came to you. I was wondering if Callum would have done this, maybe he had someone take the picture for him?” He pockets his phone and crosses his arms over one another.

Realization dawns on me. “He asked me out, and he acted like he had changed. But he’s always been one for revenge or petty schemes. God, I’m such an idiot.” I huff, “I even said yes to a date tonight, who knows what he’s got planned.”

“You wanted to get back together with him?” Kurt asks and I can hear an emotion in his voice but I can’t tell if it’s surprise, jealousy, curiosity, or disappointment. I decide that it shouldn’t matter to me but I feel the need to explain myself anyway.

“Yes, well, he came back and was really sweet and he seemed like he had changed. He was polite, took things slow… And after I saw you with Ashley, I couldn’t face you again without that image in my head and I know I shouldn’t have reacted that way because our engagement wasn’t real, so it was totally fine and I guess I just… Well, I don’t really know what happened. A moment of weakness?” I stop to breathe, and I look up at his face finally and I can clearly read the guilt and regret that resides on his face. And shock at my revelation that I had seen them together. “You don’t have to feel guilty. You and I were never really a thing. Not a real couple. Right? Right. Ashley was your girlfriend, maybe still is. So, you did nothing wrong.”

He clears his throat. “You’re right. I did nothing wrong.” I nod, looking down at the ground but he continues, “Because nothing happened. I did nothing wrong because I did nothing. We didn’t do anything, Ashley and I.”

“What do you mean?” I look up again, confused and a little surprised.

“I was drunk, yes, a bad excuse but the next morning, I told Ashley it had been a mistake and to leave the apartment and she told me that nothing had happened, but that you had thought something had. Why didn’t you ask me about it? I would have told you the truth.”

“Is that why you came to see me the next day?” I pause and then ask another question, my voice raising an octave, being defensive, “Why didn’t you bring it up?” We both stand there, not responding to each other’s questions. After a few seconds of silence, I smile and he smiles back. We’re both sad, confused, and exhausted. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You didn’t do anything?” He nods still smiling at me and I immediately feel butterflies in my stomach and I think to myself, oh no, not this again.

I direct my attention back to the creepy photo. “Callum knew we weren’t together anymore, I told him that. You and I weren’t together when this picture was taken so I’m not sure why whoever it is texted you that.” Again, I make a huffing noise, and Kurt looks equally as frustrated and confused. Then he sighs and takes a step back as if distancing himself from the problem, me.

“Well, it doesn’t bother me as long as you’re okay?” He poses it as a question.

I shrug, feeling a little shaken but not horribly so. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just strange that someone would send that to you. Do you really think Callum sent it or had someone else do it?” I go back to the original suspect. “Besides revenge or pettiness, I just don’t really understand what his motive would be.” Letting myself drift back down to the floor, my eyes glaze over and I lightly drag my fingers over each book laid out before me. Kurt stands near me and I can practically hear him thinking. A few seconds later, he clears his throat.

“I never told anyone that we called off our engagement. So, it could be any number of people who think we are still together.”

“I never told anyone either, besides Tatyana, who already knew it was fake.” I look up at Kurt and catch him watching me, but he doesn’t look away, he just smiles. He squats down in front of me, I keep my head tilted back a bit, so I can look him in the eyes. His eyes sparkle a little which makes me blush and I am about to turn away when he grabs my chin between his forefinger and thumb and leans in and barely brushes his lips over mine.

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