Page 43 of It's Only Make Believe

“At least take these,” I say, holding out the bottle of painkillers to him.

He takes them and puts them in his pocket and thanks me again. He starts towards the door, and I follow him out. He opens my front door and moves into the corridor.

“I hate to say this, but I really think you should break up with Luke,” he says. “You’ve seen now what he’s capable of. What if next time he gets annoyed or jealous, it’s at you?”

“Good night, Justin,” I say, not wanting to go into that with him.

“Good night,” he says, accepting my decision to not discuss it.

He walks away and I gently close and lock the door. I turn around and lean back against it. I sigh and shake my head. Idon’t know what has happened tonight, but I will get to the bottom of it, and I will decide from there what happens with Luke and me. He at least deserves a chance to explain his side of the story, and no matter how angry he happened to get, I don’t for a second believe he would hurt me.

Chapter

Thirty

LUKE

Ilook up from my desk, shocked when my office door opens. No one knocked and everyone knows to knock. Besides that, I didn’t even know anyone else was at work yet. It’s only just gone half past eight and mostly, people come in for nine. My shock and slight annoyance at the fact that my visitor didn’t knock on my office door fades away when I see Louisa coming in. I open my mouth to say good morning to her, but something in her expression stops me and I frown instead.

“Are you ok?” I say, standing up.

She nods her head and closes my door.

“Sit down please,” she says. “I need to talk to you. It’s not about work which is why I’m here outside of work time.”

I sit down and she sits down opposite me.

“Did you beat the crap out of Justin last night?” she says.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t that. What the hell has made her think that?

“Of course not,” I say. “Why would you even think that?”

“Because Justin said you did,” Louisa says.

“Oh, and Justin is the picture of honesty, is he? If Justin said it, it must be true,” I snap.

“There’s no need to be like that about it,” Louisa says. “Justin turned up at my place last night and he had been beaten badly. And he said you did it. I don’t want to believe it’s true, but I had to ask.”

“Justin is a fucking liar,” I say. “I didn’t beat him, but given the trouble he has stirred up, I’m not going to lie. I kind of wish I had.”

“That’s an awful thing to say,” Louisa replies. “His face was a mess.”

I shrug my shoulders, and she shakes her head at me. I’m not going to pretend I’m too upset at Justin getting the smack he deserves, especially not when he used the experience to try and cause trouble between Louisa and me.

“What did happen then?” she asks.

“I have no idea,” I say. “But if I had to guess, I would say he started running his mouth to the wrong person. We were having a perfectly pleasant evening and then I think he got a bit too drunk, and he started saying he had you first and he was going to get you back and I should just step aside. I was annoyed, but I didn’t want to cause a scene, so I got up and left the pub and I thought that would be the end of it. But of course, it wasn’t, because Justin followed me outside and continued to taunt me. I shoved him away from me when he came at me and that was it. I left then and he stayed put. Obviously, something happened after I had left but I don’t know what.”

“OK,” Louisa says. She looks less angry and more confused now. “I’m sorry, but I had to ask you. You understand that don’t you?”

I’m pissed off that she felt like she needed to ask me actually, but at the same time, I can see it from her point of view, andI guess if the roles were reversed, I would have asked her what happened. I nod.

“I believe you, but I just can’t see why Justin would lie. Do you think maybe he got jumped from behind and he thought it was you?” Louisa says.

I shake my head.

“He lied because he’s fucking toxic. Why can’t you see that?” I shout.

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