Page 15 of Inevitable

“Oh my God…you love each other. I knew something felt off between you because he looked at me like I was a home-wrecker and you? You ran off after him like he was a scorned lover! What the fuck, Bastian? Have you been cheating on me with that piece of trash?” Ainsley shrieked at me.

What. The ever-loving. Fuck?

“What did you just call him?...” I asked low and menacingly. However, Ainsley wasn’t deterred, and my remark fueled her ire more.

“See?! You’re not even denying it, Bastian! All you're concerned about is whatever mean name I just called your little side piece!”

“He’s not my fucking sidepiece, and don’t talk about him like that! I’m not fucking cheating on you!” I shout back.Well…save for that one time…with Micah…fuck my life.

We locked eyes across the room, chests heaving in anger, neither of us willing to back down. I wasn’t going to let her think she was right…even though she had me pegged with every word she said because it was true.

I was falling in love with Micah. Probably had been all these months that I was seeing him differently, but that thought triggered the same chain reaction of fear and anxiety that it had last weekend, so I shoved it back down into the deep, dark recesses of my mind. I needed to try to convince Ainsley that she was way off the mark with her accusation.Why? Well, it's been pretty firmly established at this point that I am a complete, moronic douchebag.

“Look, I am not cheating on you, and Micah is just my best friend. He…” I paused, taking a breath to steady my nerves before continuing. “He’s pissed at me because I didn’t tell him we were dating, and I’ve never lied to him before. That’s all.”

Her eyes narrowed distrustfully, looking me over as she tried to discern whether I was being honest or not. A few heartbeats later, her face relaxed into a cold mask of near indifference.

“Okay. Why didn’t you tell him we were dating then? Why lie to him about me?”

She had every right to ask that and it was a logical question in the face of what I had told her, but I didn’t feel that the truth would help me out of this right now, so I told her a half-truth instead.

“I guess because you were kind of right about him being angry about us being together…he’s never had to share me with anyone, so I think he’s hurt and ticked off that I have someone else who occupies my time besides him. It’ll…just take him a little bit to accept it.” I said with a hollow voice. Each word out of my mouth made me sink further into self-hatred and disgust for what I had lowered myself to.

Not only had I actually cheated on Ainsley with Micah, but I haddeceived him into believing that I had no recollection of what we had done or what he had told me right after in bed. Now with this new revelation, he had to be crushed thinking I didn’t trust him as much as I used to or that he wasn’t as important to me as he thought.

That thought alone had me almost doubling over in pain and regret.

“Look…I’m really sorry, but I’m exhausted and I need some time, Ains. I’ll text you later though.” She took a second before nodding her head, and walking up to me slowly until she was inches from my face.

When she leaned in to kiss me, it took the willpower of Atlas not to flinch away from the contact.She’s not who I want to kiss…those aren’t the lips I want.

She gently pressed her lips to mine, and I held still while ever so slightly returning the pressure so as not to tip her off that something was wrong. She pulled back and looked me in the eyes again, a dangerous undercurrent in her steely gaze.

“Just remember, Bastian, that we’re together for a reason. Both our families expect it, and you know how your father would feel if this didn’t work out between us. If I were you, I’d think hard about what the right choice is here before you make a mistake you’ll regret.”

Without a second glance, she coolly turned on her heel and walked out of the apartment, leaving me with an ice cold sensation trickling down my spine and a sense of trepidation that she was much more than a harmless pawn in my father’s game.

CHAPTER 9

Micah

It took me twice as long to walk to my apartment because of the tears blurring my eyes and the chaos in my head resulting from that sucker punch to the gut at Bash’s place. When he appeared in the doorway behind her (Ainsworth? Ainlee? Whatever, who the fuck cares…), I couldn’t see beyond the blinding pain and rage that had hit me upside the head when I heard her say she was his girlfriend.

Seriously, how the fuck did he go all those months telling me that he wasn’t after anything serious and was unattached when he had a goddamn girlfriend back here waiting for him?

Oh sweet Mary, Joseph, and the shit-spitting camel…I’m a cheater. He made me a cheater.

That thought hadn’t even processed to me until I was walking home dissecting the last thirty minutes of my pathetic life, but now it was glaring bright red in front of me. Bash had been with Ainsley when we hooked up…and he hadn’t said a damn word!

Granted, he was so smashed that he had forgotten half of the night, including our little tryst, so clearly his better judgment had taken a long hike that day, but still!

What really killed me the most was the knowledge that Bash hadn’t trusted me with the truth, and if that was the case, then maybe I didn’t mean as much to him as he did to me? Sure, he’s always called me his best friend and we’d definitely been weirdly attached to each other for years, but…that didn’t necessarily mean that my friendship meant the same to him as his did to me.

Wasn’t that what this whole situation was proving right now? That Bash might be my soulmate, but I sure as hell wasn’t his?

Wow…well, this is just becoming a fucking banner year for you, huh Russo?

The tears flowed a little harder upon that realization as I finally made it to my apartment building and rode the elevator to my floor, thankful that my new roommate wasn’t slated to make an appearance for a few weeks. As much as I wanted to close my eyes and pretend this whole clusterfuck had never happened, I couldn’t shake the thoughts and visions of them being together…them meeting, flirting for the first time, Bash asking her out, their first time sleeping together, how Bash had probably thought he was falling in love with her, how she got to claim him as hers…all of it played like a highlight reel from Hell in my brain. I contemplated how desperate I’d have to be to give myself a lobotomy to rid myself of the images, but there was one image that popped up brighter than the rest: Bash’s broken, devastated face in the hallway when he was begging me to give him a chance.

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