Page 53 of One Lovely Lie

I shake my head, my fingers scrambling on my phone as tears well in my eyes. “Magnus, I didn’t mean—”

He hangs up. I throw my phone across my bed with a loud shout. Every nerve in my body is on fire and it feels like it’s hard to breathe. I can’t deal with Magnus thinking that I believe he’s unfaithful. I can’t deal with him being mad at me. I feel like a fucking idiot for letting myself get in the way of us.

There’s a knock on my door and I whine as I go to open it. I hastily scrub the tears away from my eyes and take a breath before opening the door.

“Sweetheart, I heard a noise,” my mother says, looking around my room for the source. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just…saw a bug,” I explain lamely. “I was talking to Magnus.”

She wrinkles her nose in distaste as she comes in and sits on my desk chair. “You’re still friends with him?”

Oh, we are so much more than friends.

“Yes, Mother,” I say with a roll of my eyes and a small laugh. “The answer doesn’t change no matter how much you ask.”

“There’s nothing wrong with him, per se. He’s just not the best influence,” she says with a shrug. “Fortunately, the distance between the two of you will do you some good.”

I rear my head back a bit. “Distance?”

“You haven’t heard? The Black company is opening a branch in Germany. As soon as he graduates, Magnus is off to Mannheim,” she says matter-of-factly, even though this news is currently knocking me off my axis.

“Does he know this?” I ask slowly, careful to control the tremor in my voice.

“I think so,” she says as she considers it. “It’s set in stone, sweetheart.”

I’m not sure what to think. All I can focus on is how much it fucking hurts that Magnus hasn’t said anything about it. We just started dating—we’reofficial. Was he just going to disappear on me? Just wait until the end of the year and then send me off to Harvard with a wave?

I’m so torn. My mind is at war with itself. Part of me is furious that he kept this from me, but the other part is screaming at me for messing up what little time we have left together.

“Oh, will you take Florence to dinner tonight? She’s quite taken with you,” my mother says with that persuasive smile of hers. “I was hoping you could spend some more time with her.”

I really don’t want to go out with Florence. All I want to do is stay at home, bury myself in my bed, maybe grab some ice cream, and wallow. But just like Magnus and Germany, I have a responsibility to my family. I’m not too sure what my mother thinks will come out of spending time with Florence, but I’ll do as I’m asked.

I swallow dryly and nod. “Of course, Mother.”

Chapter 17

Daniel

I take a deep breath as I stand in front of Magnus’s dorm. It feels like the last two weeks passed at a snail’s pace. It was a blur of fancy dinners, charity events, and cocktail hours filled with people I had little interest in, all in the name of family.

While I love spending time with my parents, I feel like a different person when I’m with them. The only son, the golden child, the future of a multi-billion-dollar company.

With Magnus, I’m more.

We haven’t spoken much since our argument, just a few texts letting him know I’m sorry and we’d talk more when I got back, but I’m hoping like hell he’s forgiven me.

I knock hesitantly and rock on my heels as I wait for an answer, my hands shoved deep in my pockets and my teeth clamped down on my bottom lip. It only takes a second for him to answer but when he does, it hits me once again.

There will never be anybody for me but Magnus.

He’s still in his pajamas despite it being two in the afternoon. His hair is all disheveled and not in the way he styles it. He’s got dark bags under his eyes and I wonder if it’s for the same reason I do.

But he’s so fucking beautiful.

I don’t speak. I don’t ask. I just throw myself at him, wrapping him in my arms, and breathing him in. When he returns my embrace, I know everything is going to be okay. It’s all forgiven just like it always has been and it always will be. It feels like all the cracks I made in our relationship two weeks ago are molding back together, coming back stronger.

He walks me backward into his room, kissing my neck sweetly, and I can feel him trembling in my arms. “Thank god you’re back.”

---