Page 28 of In the Net
“Anniversary?” Sebastian asks, voice still flat and bewildered.
“Anniversary?” the girl next to him asks, her voice sharper with suspicion. She takes a step away from him. Biting back my smile becomes even harder, but I manage.
Furrows dig into Sebastian’s forehead above the frames of his glasses as he huffs a laugh. But when he turns to look at the girl next to him with acan-you-believe-this?expression on his face, he notes the expression of wariness on hers, and his smile disappears.
“Wait,” he says. “There’s no anniversary.”
I frown, my eyebrows pinching. “Of course there is. America is on the same date as us now. Don’t tell me you forgot that you and my sister started dating five years ago.”
I don’t know where the idea that Diane is my sister came from, but hey, I’m winging it.
“What’s going on?” the girl asks, stepping even further away from Sebastian and eyeing him with contempt. “You’re dating someone? Forfive years?”
“Wait, no, I’m …” Sebastian fumbles his words.
“Wait,yes,” I pronounce with authority. I swing my gaze to the girl at his side, paying attention to her for the first time. I pull an appalled face and look back at Sebastian. “Oh, Sebastian, don’t tell me you’re cheating again.”
Sebastian’s jaw drops, and I’m privileged to witness a very rare phenomenon indeed: him being lost for words.
He looks at the girl and finally recovers his capacity for speech. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on here, but this isn’t true at all. She’s?—”
The girl cuts him off. “You don’t know her?”
Sebastian shakes his head. “No, I mean, yeah, Iknowher, but …”
She takes one more step back and shakes her head, her body language turning frosty. “Look, I’m only here for the next couple days. I don’t have time to deal with whateverthisis,” she says, wagging her index finger between me and Sebastian.
Sebastian’s mouth forms a silent O shape as his tongue seems to be struggling to find words. But his would-be date tonight doesn’t bother to stick around to hear them. She quickly takes her leave of us, and Sebastian’s disappointed eyes follow her as she walks up the stone stairway back to street level and disappears into the Parisian throng.
Finally, I don’t have to bite back my smile anymore. It takes residence on my face, broad and very, very petty.
But it’s a smile of justice, because I only did to Sebastian just what he did to me. The only difference is, he started it.
“Harper! Why the hell did you do that!” Sebastian exclaims, turning back to me.
I just tilt my shoulder, my smile still beaming. “Why? I guess for the same reason you said whatever you said to Clement on the plane that made him suddenly lose all interest.”
“Hey, who’s to say I even said anything to him? Maybe the seven hours of quiet reflection helped him come to his senses and realize that he can find better company for the next week.”
He’s trying to play it off, but I can read the defensive edge in his eyes.
I square my shoulders. “Right. It was a total coincidence that right before I left him at his seat, he was literally asking me on a date tonight, then I see you two talking and looking back at me, and when we get off the plane, he couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”
Sebastian gnaws on the inside of his lip. “You should thank me. I did you a favor.”
My eyebrows explode upward toward my hairline. I had no doubt that Sebastian did something to sour Clement’s opinion of me, but I feel a fresh burst of outrage at finally getting the full confirmation.
“A favor!” I exclaim, incredulous at the word.
Sebastian’s nose twitches as his forearms fold over his chest. I try to ignore the thick veins that swell over the muscle. “That guy was like twenty years older than you. It was weird.”
My jaw drops. “He was barely five years older than me!”
Sebastian has nothing to say. From the way he rolls his lips, I know thatheknows the reasoning he just gave was full of shit.
I prop my hands on my hips. “Well, I won’t claim that I was doing you a favor. I did do her a favor, though.”
He huffs. “Whatever. Let’s just stay out of each other’s business for the rest of the time here.”
