Page 60 of The Fate Of Us

“You didn’t have to.”

I turned my head towards him slightly, studying him whilst his eyes were elsewhere.“Has anyone ever told you that those eyes belong in a horror movie?”

His brows drew in. “What?”

“Nothing.”

My head shifted back towards the set, trailing his line of sight and landing on thefigure in green that caught his attention.

Green was her colour. You couldn’t deny it. Almost like the colour was born with herin mind.

Even with a face that could rival a thunderstorm, it suited her.

As I was saying, if she wanted to act so childish about something that wasn’t true,then so would I. Although, I still wasn’t sure if the pictures I’d seen of Asher and Addy outside her apartment last week were anything more than a photo captured at the wrong time.

Saying that, his suit and her dress certainly painted the picture we all thought wecould see.

“Ready for this fight then, brother?” Asher quipped from beside me, his shoulderbrushing mine.

“Oh, I think it’s well overdue, don’t you?” I did nothing to hide the knowing smirkcurling up my face.

“I suppose for you it is,” he started, before stepping in front of me. “I have a feelingyou want to punch me just for how I spoke about Addy that night I met you two.”

Static. That was all I saw. As though the cogs in my brain had stopped churning for asecond, the earth seemed to stand still.

“You…” I choked on the word. “You’ve known it was—”

“That it was you she introduced me to? Yes, I’ve always known.” A laugh escapedhim, and I didn’t know whether to punch him or hear him out. I thought it best to save the punches for the camera.

Hyper-realism and all that.

“So, you’ve known it was me you told to leave that night, at the restaurant, andyou’ve never said anything?”

A hand scraped across his light stubble. “I nearly did, the first time I realised that I’dseen you somewhere before. But then I remembered that you got Addy in the end, and I was stupid, and jealous. So I just kept it up.” he breathed, like what he’d confessed was barely worth a mention.

Deep, simmering rage started to bubble, the kind that I remember feeling the night Imet him.

“Ibarelyhad her in the end, you mean.” I looked him up and down, my hands slidinginto the pockets of my jeans, thankful that I had an extra inch of height compared to him, one I took advantage of on the few moments that I felt like dominating a conversation. “But I suppose you know that part of the story.”

His face was the definition of confusion, but before he had time to defend himself orclaim he had no idea what I was talking about, I stepped around him.

I only got a few paces away before he called after me.“Do I, Nate?” I swivelled around. “According to Addy, she doesn’t think it was myfault, what happened between you guys.”

My face went still. Had she told him?—

“Instead of interrogating me about what youthinkhappened, if anything did, maybetalk to the girl who has no clue what caused your little disappearing act. She deserves the truth.” His head dropped, before locking our eyes again. “I’d be quick if I were you, there’s only so long I, or someone else, can wait for another date with her.”

Before I could question him about what that meant, he sauntered off into the hecklesand bear hug from Sebastian.

His words only brought more questions than I’d started the day off with. He’d knownI was Addy’s best friend all this time, the scrawny teenager he’d told to leave so he could have her to himself. He’d known, and not told me because…

I recalled his words.

“Then I remembered that you got Addy in the end.”

That couldn’t have been right, considering he and Addy kissed, months after thatnight we met. He got her, in the end, which should have solved the mystery for them. That was the reason I cut her off, and never came back that day.

Was this all one big mind game for me to admit I was wrong for leaving her, eventhough she was the one who gave up on us first?

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