Hannah would be laughing at me if she knew.
Hell, she’d probably remind me how much I deserve this.
His footsteps carried out throughout the condo, and I tried to shut out the sound of him. What was he waiting for? I didn’t want him there anymore; he didn’t want me, so what did he want?
The answer became clear when, after a few minutes, the door to my bedroom creaked open. Unable to hold back, a ragged sob left my lips. I heard him sigh, but he made no attempt to touch me.
“What do you want?” I asked him.
“You told me to do what I want, and I want to sleep next to the woman I love, but I can’t unless you tell me what the fuck is wrong.”
I sat up, wiping my face for the hundredth time. Nathan seemed unfazed.
“I don’t want you to stay.”
“Liar.” He stood across the room, leaning against the dresser. His gaze was unwavering as he spoke. “You obviously think something is going on, so why don’t you just clear up whatever is going on in that little head of yours?”
There was nothing I could say to that. I knew he was completely right, but for some reason, I now felt like an idiot.
“Ask me,” he said.
For the first time during all the chaos, I was doubting what I so quickly believed to be true. Nonetheless, I knew I had to ask.
“Are you cheating on me?”
Chapter 11
Evelyn
The question was a slap to his face.
And I realized how stupid I sounded.
He started pacing around the room, unsure of what to do or say, and to be honest, I didn’t know what to do either, so I just sat there staring at him.
“I’m hoping this is the last time we have this conversation,” he finally said.
He was angry. In fact, he wasn’t just angry; Nathan was fuming. I’d seen him angry before, but this time it was palpable—I could feel every bit of it, and I knew it wouldn’t be as easy to fix things. Not this time.
“No, I wasn’t at the gallery. I was with Jesse at a cafe discussing a surprise I wanted to give you. I don’t know if it’ll be worth it now because it’s fucking clear you don’t trust me.”
The intensity of his glare completely shut out any response.
“Evie, I keep doing all this shit for you, and you still doubt me. I’m not cheating, and I don’t understand why the hell you’d think that. Don’t you think I wouldn’t leave my stuff lying around the floor? I’ve trusted you with the keys to the gallery, to the fucking apartment. You know the password to my phone and—”
“You were still acting secretive!” I exclaimed.
Nathan scoffed in disbelief. “Well, it’s kind of difficult to give you a surprise if I have to fucking tell you,” he snapped.
I sighed. How the hell did we get to this point? We never argued like this, we were good together, but this fight…it seemed big enough to break us.
“Fuck,” I said, standing up. Unable to hold back any longer, I rushed again to the restroom, throwing up. Almost immediately, Nathan was there, holding my hair back despite our problems.
Once I had finished, I brushed my teeth yet again, looking back at Nathan through the mirror. His whole face was a mask of anger, but I didn’t want to argue anymore. Remembering the words he’d once said about waiting to calm down before having a discussion, I asked if we could leave the conversation until the next day.
He didn’t agree.
So, as I sat in front of him, waiting for either of us to say something, anything that could clear up the doubts, all I could do was think back to what I saw and heard in his apartment.