Page 35 of The Fate Of Us

My eyes fall onto her, the sight of her sweeping up the spilt flour making me giggle, but after a while, my laughs lodge in my throat, the way and my voice dried up completely when I skimmed over the dress that’s covering her, again.

Addy has never made my chest hurt before, but for some reason, every time I catch aglimpse of her tonight, it starts hurting. And not in the way I’m used to. A new way. A nice way. I don’t know what to make of it.Didn't know what to call the feeling in my chest last year either, when I opened the door to find her standing there.

She looked pretty in white.

Even prettier than she did last year when she wore it for the first time.

I shake my head.“You remember when we went to the city, and stopped in that bakerynear Venice, just past the marina?”

Addy’s head tilts up to me.“The one where I spent my entire life earnings for acupcake? How could I forget?”she laughs, slapping her hands together to rid them of the flour.

“Well, my mom knows the lady who owns it. And she snagged me… us… the recipefor those cinnamon buns that—”

“The ones that looked really gooey? And were the size of mountains?”She asks asher eyes light up, cheeks beaming.

There’s that pain again.Not pain, exactly. I craved this. I couldn't explain it.

I brush it away.

“Yep,”I mutter, stepping around her and pulling open the oven, making sure it wasactually warming up before spinning back to face her.“I dunno, I just thought it would be fun. But if you wanna do something else—”

“Nate,”Her head tilts at me again, her topaz eyes sweeping over me.“It’s yourbirthday, okay? Yours. Not mine. We can do whatever you want, and I’ve already promised I won’t sing the song. Anddd we’re watching the original tri… whatever.”

“Trilogy—”

“Besides! It’s your day. We do whatyouwant.”she says in a whisper before leaping back off the counter and grabbing an apron for each of us that I left out on the counter.“Who knows,”she says, slipping the apron over her head.“Maybe we’ll make it a birthday tradition?”

I make it onto set earlier than I need to. That’s what not sleeping all night will do toyou. Not sleeping for the past three nights, if we’re being technical.

To be honest, I don’t think I’ve had a full night’s sleep since my birthday last week.

I love Flo, and I love that Jacob found someone as amazing as her, but the second sheplaced those buns in the middle of the table, my soul turned to lead, plummeting to the depths of me with no proof of return.

Addy’s overly forced smile was obviously her way of pretending everything wasnormal, but I saw that smile dip the second she placed one in her mouth.

The thought of Addy triggered something, as my hand flew to my stomach, clutchingit like it would make that guilty feeling that was to blame for my sleepless nights and talkative conscience fade away.

You know why you bother, Addy.

It’s a guilty wear.

The echo of my words has me scrunching my eyes closed, my face contorted withregret.I don’t know what came over me when I collared her like that. Invading her space,whispering in her ear, and making her cry… like an asshole. I think it was the fact that she turned up in that dress that made my world fade red. What caused every memory from my past birthdays and that secret wrap party last year to take over.

But what hurt me more was seeing how broken she looked after what I did. She didn’treact like someone who knew they were in the wrong, or that she knew she was the reason for our angst.

She looked clueless. Wounded. Exhausted.

Like she was just as tired of this charade as I was.

Or she could just be as good a manipulator as I thought she was, and the hurt bunnylook she used as a mask that night was just a tactic for me to admit I was wrong.

Regardless, I still felt the need to apologise for crowding her like that.

I drop my shit off in my dressing room, taking a fleeting minute or two to rotin the egg chair that I finally had shipped here, before making headway for the snack table. I zero in on the likely burnt filter coffee, before spotting the espresso machine next to it and—

“Oh, sorry—”

“My bad, I’m—”

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