Page 47 of It's Only Make Believe

Luke reaches out and stops the footage.

“Well fuck. I didn’t expect that,” he says.

“Me neither,” I say. “God he’s a real fucking psycho, isn’t he?”

Luke nods his head.

“It’s not normal to go to those lengths to get someone to break up with their partner so he can muscle his way in,” he says. “I know he’s your friend and I would never say you can’t be friends with someone, but please Louisa, promise me you won’t see him alone.”

“There’s no way I want to be friends with him after this,” I say. “It’s … far too much.”

“That’s a nice way of wording it,” Luke says, and we both laugh, and I feel a bit better, although I still feel a pit of dread in my stomach. Justin isn’t normal. Luke warned me about him and Louisa warned me about him, and I chose to ignore both of them, only to see for myself what a giant creep Justin is. I’m glad I’ve seen it for myself now though so I can make sure to cut off all ties with him. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah,” I say. “I’m just a bit freaked out that I was ever friends with this guy. I’m glad now that Emily left him for her sake. Oh wait, they might get back together, I should warn her.”

“They aren’t getting back together. Justin refused to apologize to her,” Luke says. “He told me before he turned weird.”

“That’s something at least,” I say. “I have to get back now; Karl will think I got lost. What should I tell him you wanted?”

“A blow job,” Luke says.

“Ha ha very funny,” I say.

“I thought so,” Luke grins. “Just say we were discussing your progress as an intern and that I’m very happy with your work and that you’re happy on the team. Assuming you are happy there?”

“I am,” I confirm.

“Don’t forget to pop in and see what Mel wants on the way out,” Luke says, and I feel myself blushing just at the thought of it.

“I hope she hasn’t been watching for me coming back from the bathroom,” I say.

“Don’t worry,” Luke says. “Even if she has put the pieces together, she’s discreet.”

Chapter

Thirty-Two

TIA

It’s my lunch break and I’ve eaten my tuna salad bowl and a chocolate muffin. I pick up my cell phone and search through my contacts for Justin’s name. I find him and touch the screen and choose text message. I was going to call him and ask for an explanation for what happened, but I have decided that there isn’t anything he can say that I will accept as a plausible reason for what he did. For that reason, I have also decided that he doesn’t deserve a phone call. He can have a text message and he’s only getting that because I want him to know that I know what he’s done and that I choose Luke over him and would do the same thing a thousand times over.

I stare at the blank screen of my cell phone for a few seconds while I gather my thoughts and then I start to type.

“I know Luke didn’t do that to your face. I know what you did, and I can’t be friends with someone who could do something like that and then lie about it. I wish you well, but please don’t contact me again,” my text message says.

I reread it and I hit send. I was careful not to say I’m sorry we can’t be friends anymore or anything along those lines because while it might have softened the blow a bit, if Justin thinks there’s even a small part of me that’s sorry to see him go, I don’t think he will leave me alone. I do think the bit where I wish him well might soften the blow a bit and stop him from replying and being argumentative though.

It doesn’t stop him from replying. Within seconds of me hitting send, my cell phone beeps, alerting me to a new text message. I already know who it will be from, and I reluctantly pick up my cell phone. I half and half want to just ignore it, but I know I won’t be able to put this behind me until I have read his reply. I open the message.

“Please don’t do this Tee. I know I was a fool, and I regret what I did. I know it’s no excuse, but I was drunk and drunk me thought it was a good idea. Sober me would never have done such a thing. I only did it because I love you though. Forgive me. Be mine once more and I will spend forever making this up to you I swear x,” the message says.

It's actually a lot less aggressive than what I was expecting, but it has no more effect on me than if he had told me to fuck off. There was a time if he had told me he loved me, I would’ve had some sympathy for him at least, but not now. Not after what he’s done. I can’t feel anything for him but a deep dislike.

I start to reply to the text message, but I decide against it. Every reply Justin gets, regardless of what I say, will only spur him on. If he thinks I’m still bothering to reply to him, he will think there’s a part of me that still cares about him, a part he can manipulate into coming around to his side of things. There isn’t and there’s nothing he can say to make me feel sorry for him now, but I really don’t have the energy to waste on arguing with him. I lock my cell phone screen and put it back away.

By the time I’ve cleaned up after myself in the break room, there’s another two messages beeped in. By the time I’ve used the ladies’ room and headed back to my workstation, another one. By the time Karl tells me to either answer my cell phone or put it on silent, another four messages have come in.

I apologize to Karl and pull my cell phone out. I switch it to silent and take a quick look at the messages. All of them are from Justin as I suspected and all of them are variations of him telling me he’s sorry, he loves me, and he doesn’t want to lose me from his life. He even offers to apologize to Luke. I put my cell phone back away without replying. If he keeps going, I will just block his number.

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