"Yes," I gritted out.
"Who?"
Holy shit. How had we ended up here? And what the hell did I do now? "It's a long story."
"I have time.Who?And what did they do to you?"
Moving my head side to side, I tried in vain to alleviate the sudden tension in my neck and shoulders. Again, how had our conversation led to this? Of all the topics in the world? And what did I say?
I'd dug myself into a massive hole, and I needed to dig myself out if I had any hope of sticking to my original plan.
Twenty-Two
Astrid
"It was a long time ago," I said, doing my best to downplay it.
"When you were a kid?" he probed. "High school?"
Why did he have to ask that? "Yeah," I admitted. I needed to change the subject immediately. "So—"
"What happened?" he interrupted.
"It was nothing." God, I nearly choked spitting out that lie.
"Nothing? I doubt it. It sounds like something that shaped your whole way of thinking, so I'd hardly call it nothing."
I inhaled through my nose and let it out through my mouth. He had no idea how terrifying this conversation was for me.
Maybe I should just tell him. Part of it at least.
"I was bullied for being fat," I finally said.
He sucked in a breath that I could hear through the quiet that followed my statement.
"Goddamn," he seethed. "People can be so fucking cruel. I'm so sorry that happened to you. If you give me names, I'll beat them to a pulp."
Clamping my lips together, it took everything inside me not to say something, and it might have been the hardest thing I ever had to do.
Wait, why was I doing this again? Why shouldn't I just confront him right now? This was absolutely ridiculous.
Revenge. My sisters' voices rang in my head...revenge is a dish best served cold. Something they'd both said repeatedly.
So I had an agonizing choice at this exact moment. I could either tell him who I was and how much he'd destroyed me, how he could just go to hell and stay there forever.
OrI could keep playing this game, keep drawing him in, try to make him fall hard for me, and then get my ultimate revenge.
I was never good at split second decisions. Never. So this was killing me.
Maybe I should just wait. There was no harm in waiting. I could always confront him later, because if I did it now, there was no going back. The cat would be out of the bag. Pandora's box would be open. The genie would be out of the bottle. All the damn metaphors would apply here.
"No names," I said. "No need. I'm over it now." How I managed to say that lie, I'd never know.
"I don't think you can ever get over something like that, baby."
Not the baby. Not at this insane moment.
My throat was so tight, I couldn't speak, and he filled the silence.
