Page 85 of Siren's Game

"Huh?" Millie asks, her eyes darting behind me as though I'm hiding Kayla behind my back.

"She left. And she broke things off," I sigh and sit down, swallowing past the emotion in my throat. Fuck. "It's over."

"The hell it is," Millie says full of conviction. Then her gaze turns serious as she turns to me. "But I have a bone to pick with you."

"I know," I say with a sigh and rub the bridge of my nose between my eyes. "I should have said something earlier."

"You should have talked to your parents before even bringing Kayla here," she hisses, and I bite my lip. I know she's right. "In fact, you should have mentioned it before they ever met. You have no idea how sensitive of a topic her parents are. I just bet that when she told you about them, she downplayed everything, but I'm the one who hears her cry at night when she has too much time with her thoughts on tour. I canseeher asking herself if she's good enough with every goddamn thing we do in public, the way her walls go up with every new person she meets. Whatever emotion she showed you when she told you, take that times a hundred and you might come close to how she really feels." She takes a deep breath.

"And then you throw her into this family dynamic? Have her parade around the premises with your mother? Who is a lovely woman by the way, but that's not what this is about."

I nod. I get it. I fucked up.

"And your comment on 'when' you're marrying her probably didn't help either," Luca adds and Millie nods vehemently.

"So tell me something, Asher. Before I go and talk some sense into my bestie." She leans over the table, her arms crossed and fingers flexing. "What are your intentions with my friend?

Kayla

Idon'tevenknowhow I made it home. I think I waved down a taxi at the event location, and then the next time I snap back to reality, I am already sitting in my living room, thoughts spiraling around the evening.

No, not the evening. Asher.

WhenI'm lucky enough to marry her.

When.

That's not good. Or is it? It would feel better if I didn’t know that he only said it as a way to stick it to that weirdo.

Either way, the whole evening was too much for me. I sat there and felt like I couldn't breathe, expectations from all sides weighing down on me like one of those rooms from my nightmares where the walls close in on me.

I'll probably never know what could have been between us now and that makes hot tears spill down my cheeks. Fuck. I just knew I’d get my hopes up for nothing yet again.

Something might have shifted in the past weeks, but talking about fucking marriage? While we're fake-dating?

He can't be serious.

Discussing marriage is not in the realm of things to do when you're fake-dating someone. Hell, even if we were actually dating, it would have been way too early to talk about it.

Truthfully, the fact that he introduced me to his parents went too far already. So much further than this whole game should have ever gotten. I can’t believe I didn’t put my foot down from the beginning.

That's girlfriend level. Not fake-girlfriend-level. Which means it's not my place.

His familyis not my place. As lovely as Jade is, or Ellis, I never should have met them. Not for this fucking three-month stint we had planned, which now ended up being barely two.

Eight weeks. Eight weeks was all it took for him to wear my resolve down. To invite himself into my heart as if he owned the fucking place, then tore it down from the inside where I couldn’t stop him.

My panic might have taken over, but I had to make the cut. And I had to make it now.

Because if it hurts that much now, I can’t imagine how bad it would have become had I let it go on for even longer.

Looking back, we should have just broken it off when Millie and Luca became public. Taking the chance to distract the media even further, maybe that would have saved all of us a lot of heartache.

We could have just stopped showing up everywhere together. Let the fans speculate and news fizzle out after the match. I bet nobody would have cared.

But now? It's way too late to end it without a fuzz. I'm pretty sure pictures from the charity dinner were sent right to the highest bidder and now there will be gossip around our break-up whether we like it or not.

I get up and start pacing my living room, wiping the tears off my face. Touring with Millie made me take on that pacing habit after a while. And my living room is really perfect for pacing, I can walk circles right around my couch as I try to sort my thoughts and bite the skin next to my thumbnail.

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