Page 116 of Our Secret Moments

“Perfect,” she says, wiping at her face before showing me a bright smile. There’s my girl. “How about we just watch a movie? I’ll get our blankets, Elle can get the snacks and you can choose the movie. The boys can suck it up.”

“Sounds good,” Elle chirps, already on her way to the kitchen.

I do just that. I know she doesn’t want to talk in detail about what happened, but I want her to process it however she needs to. Being cheated on is the worst feeling ever and I’ll do anything to make her feel better, which means ignoring the huge elephant in the room.

As I wait for the TV to load up, I pull out my phone ready to tell Connor that she’s safe and that he doesn’t need to worry, but my gaze snags on Nora as I look up.

She’s standing in the door of my bedroom, my weighted blanket in one hand and something else I can’t see in her other. Her chin wobbles as she looks at me. My chest tightens. “What’s this?”

I swallow even when my throat goes dry. “What’s what?” I step closer to her as the microwave stops beeping and the entire room falls silent. A white paper is in her hand, face-up in Connor’s handwriting. “Oh.”

Her chestnut eyes connect with mine, a fire swarming within them. “Have you been sleeping with my brother?”

“Nora, wait–”

She reads the note aloud. “To, My Catherine. Twenty roses for your twentieth. I’m so proud of you every day. You’re my favourite person ever. Love from, Connie.” My stomach twists. Elle lets out a sigh from the side of the room, slowly inching towards this very awkward confrontation. This is not how it was supposed to go. Not at all. “Your birthday wasmonthsago. What does this mean, Cat?”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier and then everything happened and I–”

The door swings open and three men come rushing into the room. Well, Wes and Connor make their way right over to Nora, almost knocking me over in the process, while Archer stands awkwardly in the coroner, not sure if he should intervene or not.

Connor holds onto Nora’s shoulders as her icy eyes don’t leave mine. He grips her cheeks, trying to check her for injuries or any harm, but what she’s feeling now must be rooted deep inside her. “Nora, you can’t just run off like that. What were you thinking?”

She pushes at his chest and he stumbles back into me. “I can’t run off, but you can sleep with my best friend behind my back?”

Connor looks down at me and I have no words or thoughts to offer him.

Wes speaks for the both of us. “Oh, shit.”

Nora shoots him a look. “Yeah, oh shit,” she replies, rolling her eyes at him. “When were you going to tell me?”

“T-Today… Tonight, I promise,” I stutter, trying to comfort her in some way as I reach out my hands, but she crosses her arms against her chest.

“Oh, that’s fucking convenient, isn’t it?”

“Calm down, Sunshine,” Wes says, moving closer to her, but she pushes him back.

“Donotcall me sunshine and donottell me to calm down, you fool!” My head spins at the amount of force in her tone and the grin on Wes’s face. I don’t think I will ever be able to understand these two.

“How am I a fool?” Wes retorts. She just stares up at him, throwing her hands in the air as if she physically has no energy for a comeback as her chest rises and falls. The energy between them crackles as we all look between them. Something’s going on there. I don't know what, but it’s something.

“You two have been weird all night. What’s going on?” Connor asks, pointing a finger between them.

“Since we’re all spilling secrets…” Nora says, looking around the room. She drops her gaze to the ground as she mumbles, “I kissed Wes.”

It’s so quiet you could hear a hairpin drop. The moment is brief before everyone starts to scream and shout and question the weirdest thing I could have ever imagined to come out of Nora’s mouth. As much as he can flirt with her, Wes has never actually crossed that line with her.

“You kissed Wes?” I repeat, eyes wide.

“Yes.”

“The real question is whywouldn’tyou kiss Wes,” Elle says, instigating as per usual. She shrugs when we both shoot her a death stare. “What? You two act like you’re madly in love with each other.”

Wes starts laughing, throwing his head back as Connor stays silent, clearly in shock. Nora groans loudly. “I amnotin love with him. He’s my best friend and I’ve been dating Ryan for five years.”

Archer lets out a nervous laugh, holding his hands up. “Look, guys, I’m so honoured you wanted me to be apart of this conversation, but now I know Nora’s safe, I’m just going to–”

“No!” Elle bursts out. As quiet and as sneaky as she is, that was an awfully loud outburst from her. Archer turns towards her, crossing his arms against his chest, tilting his head. “I just mean, I don’t want to be the only one who’s watching this from the sidelines. You could get some real good entertainment out of this, Arch.”

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