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‘He’s good at talking himself into believing something, even if it isn’t true. Besides.’ He leans in and whispers, ‘He told me yesterday morning he wanted to be with you properly.’
Jules’s stomach flips over. He did?
Then warmth turns to fiery heat as anger bubbles in her gut. If that’s true, why did he break things off so brutally a few hours later? What changed? His feelings mustn’t be as strong as hers, if she believes Matteo that they’re there at all.
‘Why’re you telling me this?’ She clenches her hands around her orange juice.
‘Before I answer that, can I ask you something personal?’
‘Okay,’ she says slowly.
‘Was it just about sex for you?’
Jules blinks. She knows Matteo is Cameron’s close friend, but she doesn’t know the guy. How can she tell him when it took her so long to work up the courage to tell Cameron?
But Matteo is clearly working up to something and if nothing else, she’s curious to hear more about Cameron. That ache in her chest has had no time to fade and it wants to learn. Wants to understand how they got to where they are when it thought they were doing so well.
‘It wasn’t.’
‘And would you want to date him if you could?’
A lump forms in her throat as images flourish in her mind; their dinner together, gelatos by the wharf, even as far back as sitting with him and his sisters on their first day here. Further back. Their phone calls at work, how he’s been the bright centre of her days for months.
She nods.
‘Thought so. In that case …’ Matteo leans further in, lowering his voice. ‘There are some things I think you should know about Cameron. Then you can tell me if you still believe he meant what he said.’
***
Matteo wanted the conversation to be private, so they end up outside the hotel, walking down to the harbour, nursing take-away coffees that Matteo paid for. Jules’s stomach roils like a ship in a storm so she wraps her hands around the cup without trying to drink any.
‘So. You know about Braden?’ Matteo begins his explanation.
Bringing up Cameron’s ex can’t be a good sign.
‘A little,’ she says. ‘Cameron said she was his ex. That they worked together at Cable.’
‘Yep. Both true. Did he say anything about their breakup?’
‘All he said was they didn’t want the same thing. That they weren’t on the same page about how serious it was.’
‘Of course he did,’ Matteo sighs. He takes a slow drag of coffee as they pass beneath Circular Quay train station and head in the direction of the art gallery and the railing that Cameron kissed her against two nights ago. When she’d been flying high to be acting like a couple in public with him.
Though her coffee is hot in her hands, her fingers feel cold.
‘Alright,’ Matteo says. ‘I’m going to tell you the full story of what happened, because I love that man, and I think he deserves another chance with you. And you with him. Obviously, no pressure to do anything after you hear it, but you need to know where he’s coming from to get why he reacted so strongly. And why I think he lied to you about it being just sex.’
Should she say no? It’s Cameron’s story to tell. But the ache inside her quivers and she wants, needs to understand. ‘Okay.’
Matteo leads them to a wooden bench in the sun with a view of the Opera House, and a portal to memories with Cameron.
‘So him and Braden,’ he starts after they sit. Jules focuses on him like it’ll blur out the memories all around her. ‘Both worked in marketing. Hit it off straight away and started dating pretty quickly. All normal stuff. He was smitten, but then Braden started posting pictures of Cameron to the company’s social media accounts. It’s not uncommon, a lot of publishers try to go for that personal angle these days, all that behind the scenes, meet the team stuff. But the thing is, they weren’t always staged photos.’
‘Staged?’ Jules risks a sip of coffee.
‘Like Cameron in the office holding a stack of the new releases. She was sharing private pictures.’
Jules’s eyes widen. The coffee curdles in her stomach. ‘Private pictures?’
