“You never deserved it,” I hissed angrily.
“What do you want?” he whispered. “I’ve been trying to reach you for weeks. First you say you’ll come and stay, then you back out. What the heck are you playing at?”
“I thought it was safer to stay with Marco for now,” I whispered, moving backwards out of reach because he had stepped closer to me.
It felt sordid to be in here with him, the toilet right next to us.
“I want to know if you spiked Marco’s drink three months ago at the Bordello club,” I said bluntly.
His eyes widened. “What the heck are you talking about?”
“Don’t play games with me, Toby,” I told him desperately. “It had to be you. It’s part of whatever scheme you’re up to, isn’t it? Did you send people to break into his house? What the fuck are you up to?”
He threw me a look of disgust. “You’re crazy. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I’m not some scumbag criminal. Who do you think I am?”
“You made a deepfake porn video of me like a creep! You made me do something dodgy with Marco’s phone!”
“Yeah, to bypass my work’s tech system. I’m not a fucking burglar! I don’t go spiking people’s drinks. What the hell has gotten in to you?”
“It was three months ago,” I persisted. “Marco can’t remember anything about where he was on a night that his house got broken in to. Someone spiked his drink. He’s sure of it. And someone gave me that drink to hand to him. Me! And afterwards, he didn’t even remember that—”
I cut myself off sharply.
Toby started laughing, coldly, angrily. “That you slept with him?” he said bitterly.
I flushed. “Will you keep your voice down?”
“One of his goons, out there, is he?”
“Yes. Why the hell else am I skulking around in here with you?”
“You are such a slut,” he said. “You fucked him just weeks after we broke up.”
He sounded indignant.
My face went hot and red. “We broke up because you slept with another woman, or had you forgotten that? And anything I’ve done with Marco had absolutely nothing to do with you. We were over. I don’t know why the hell you thought I was going to take you back, but that is on you, not me!”
“You screwed someone else,” he hissed. “Like some fucking whore. I knew you screwed men at that club!”
“I did not!” I said a little sharply and then lowered my voice, my breath heaving in outrage. “I never slept with him for money. Screw you, Toby.”
“And I neverbeggedfor you back either,” he spat. He wrenched the door handle open, and I had to seize his jacket and bodily shove him away.
He fell with a crash on the ground.
“Are you okay in there?” barked Nicky from outside.
“Everything is fine,” I yelped. “The bin tripped me. I’m fine!”
“You bitch!” Toby hissed from the ground, looking horrified that he had landed on a dirty bathroom floor. He got up to scrub his hands at the sink and wipe his suit down with paper towels.
“How could you be so stupid?” I whispered. “What did you think would happen if he found out I was in here with you?”
“Ruined your fake little relationship with some thug, is what,” he said, looking tempted by this idea.
“And broken your face too,” I reminded him, a little smugly. I couldn’t help it. He was treating me like garbage, reminding me he had always probably thought of me that way. It no longer hurt, but I hated that he had treated me like a fool.
He dried his hands on a paper-towel and I flushed the loo for the benefit of our listener.