Page 126 of Keeper
“I know. I’m sorry.” She wilted in the intensity of my gaze. “I guess, part of me didn’twantto believe I did it … I wasn’t lying just to you, I was lying to myself, too.”
“Oh, boohoo,” I said sarcastically. “Poor you.”
“I’m not looking for pity. I’m just finally telling you the truth so you can trust me again.”
“Why? Why would you sleep with my boyfriend?” I asked. “We were supposed to be best friends.”
“It’s not like I wanted it to happen, Ainsley,” she said. “He was hot and charming, and kind of an asshole, and every girl in school wanted him. And it’s not like he was loyal to you in the first place, so what difference did it make if he cheated on you with me instead of some other random girl? What was Isupposedto do once he started flirting with me?”
“Hm, I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe have a shred of loyalty to your best friend andnotfuck him? Maybe come to me and tell me that my boyfriend was making passes at you? Ugh. You’re so shallow and shitty.”
“I know, I know. You’re right. I just couldn’t resist him. It makes me feel so gross and guilty when I think about it, I just wish it never happened. I can’t even explain it.”
“Ican explain it: it’s because you’re a shitty person and an even worse friend. I never would’ve slept with any of your boyfriends, no matter how hot or charming I thought they were.”
“I know,” she mewled. “You wouldn’t. Because you’re a good person. I’m not.”
Tanner, standing just inside his condo, rolled his eyes and motioned for me to join him inside. But I wanted to see how much more of the truth I could get out of Marta.
“I want to know something else,” I said.
“I’ll tell you anything,” she said.
“You posted a picture that Tanner sent me. How’d you get it?”
She pursed her mouth as she considered whether to tell me or not.
“Tell me, Marta. And don’t lie, because I’ll know it.”
With a deep sigh, she cast her eyes to the side. “I downloaded it,” she murmured.
“You downloaded it from where? It was only on my phone and Tanner’s phone.”
“Yeah, but when you saved it on your phone, it got saved to your cloud, too.”
“My cloud?” I reared back. “So you hacked my phone?”
“No, I didn’thackyou. I have your cloud password. You gave it to me back in high school.”
“No, I did not.” I gave her a dirty scowl, figuring she was lying yet again.
“Yes, you did,” she insisted. “It was right after our road trip to Boulder. We were at my place and I wanted the photos on my laptop so I could put them on my Insta. Your phone was dead, but the pictures were saved on your cloud, so we logged you in on my laptop to get the pictures. I tried to give you my laptop so you could log yourself in, but you told me your login and password. So I typed it in myself.”
She wasn’t lying after all. I remembered the day she was talking about.
“Wow,” I said, shaking my head. “So this whole time, you’ve had access toeverypicture on my phone? Unbelievable.”
She frowned. “It’s not like I was stalking you this whole time. I only did it once, about a week ago, to see if your password was still the same, and … and, well, it was.”
“Just last week?” I asked. “Last week and never before? You swear?”
“I swear it, Ainsley. I only checked because my old photographer quit on me. And, obviously, when I think of photographers, I think of you. I wondered if you still took pictures, and so … yeah, I logged in to check, and voila, you did. I just wanted to see how you were doing, since we hadn’t talked in so long. It was so nice to see your pictures again—I always said, you take the best pict—”
“Don’t even try to flatter me,” I said, cutting her off. “If you missed me so bad, why didn’t you justcallme or text me, then? Like a real friend would?”
“Because.” Her face crumpled with heavy shame. “Because I thought you hated me. And you wererightto hate me because of the thing with Brendan. I couldn’t possibly reach out to you because, deep down, I feltsoguilty.”
Wait a minute.
