Page 93 of Please Hate Me

She can do better.

“What are you making?” he asked, breaking the tension.

I’m sure he realized he wasn’t gonna get anywhere by antagonizing me. But that didn’t mean I had to be cordial to him. I dropped the knife and rubbed my hands together to knock off any lingering herbs.

“It’s Mason’s favorite. Why don’t you tell me?”

He eyed me for a moment, then reached over and dusted his fingers in the minced herbs before bringing them to his nose.

“Pardon me if I’m wrong, but I don’t know of a single sushi recipe that involves… this is rosemary, correct?”

He knew the time he and Mason started dating down to the hour, but not her favorite meal? Some boyfriend he was.

“That’s not her favorite—”

“Yes, it is,” he yawned. He pulled out his phone and started scrolling, seemingly losing interest in me altogether.

But then, after a moment, he continued:

“The first week I visited, I helped her move out of the apartment she shared with her ex-fiancé and back in with her father. Every single night, we got sushi.”

He slid his phone into my view, showing me a photo of Mason and him sitting together in a restaurant. His arm was slung around Mason’s shoulders, but he had a dark bottle of beer in his hand. Mason looked like she didn’t even know he was taking a picture; she had a piece of sushi halfway in her mouth. She didn’t look as happy with Sebastian as she had in the older photos with Sophia and Lucian.

“Normally, pregnant women shouldn’t consume sushi, but since she’s a vegetarian, the risks were very low,” he continued. He swiped through several more photos, displaying a similar scene taking place on several different occasions.

“Exactly, she’s pregnant. It was probably just a craving.”

“You know what? Let’s pretend you’re right.” Sebastian wove his fingers together and stretched his arms toward the ceiling. “It’s not like I’ve loved her for over a decade, and you’ve known her, what, a month?”

Once again, I weighed the pros and cons of punching Sebastian.

“You’veloved her for a decade? She was with your brother and Sophia in high school. Seems suspect to me.”

“Because I still knew her, and I’ve always been perfect for her. She just took a bit longer to realize what I always knew: we were meant to be together. I can assure you, if she had to pick between me and your littlepolycule, she’d pick me.” He snatched his phone off the counter and smirked. “You’re trying to play checkers at a chess tournament, Cameron Cole. I’m the soulmate. You’re the fling.”

I gritted my teeth and drew a breath through my nose as I mentally counted to ten. After seeing the way Mason relaxed when she put her face in his hoodie, I didn’t doubt he was right. That didn’t mean I had to like it.

Sebastian turned on his heels, heading past the living room toward the stairs. “Send her up to my apartment when she gets back. She’ll be happy to see me.”

He could’ve left it there, but he spun around just before turning the corner into the small hallway that led toward the staircase.

“Oh, one last thing.”

I tried to keep my face expressionless as I looked at him. His smirk turned downright evil. Whereas before he’d been regarding me as a fellow predator, now he was sizing me up as prey. He then proceeded to say something about Mason so vulgar it would’ve made a prostitute blush:

“La mère de ton gosse est une sale petite garage à bites.”

The silence that followed was torturous. It took everything I had to keep my face blank, to pretend I had no idea what his words meant. If I showed the barest hint of anger, he would win.

“Oh, that’s right, you don’t speak French.” He laughed maniacally before vanishing into the hallway.

I took a deep, slow breath. Mason was an adult; she was allowed to make her own decisions when it came to her love life. I had no reason to meddle in her affairs, but I knew one thing for sure: I didn’t want Sebastian raising my daughter.

My attention slowly turned to the flowers. I closed my eyes, saying a quick prayer for forgiveness. I knew I was about to do wrong, but what Mason didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. So, I grabbed the flowers and dropped them in the garbage. The white bag puffed up as they hit the bottom. I waited for some of the air to escape, then cleaned up the rosemary, tied the bag, and took out the trash.

Chapter 26

Mason

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