“How’s uni going?” he asked.
Did he not know?
“I … I don’t go anymore.”
“What do you mean, you don’t go anymore?”
I let out a sigh. “I’m not allowed. It’s fine. I don’t mind being at home.”
“Aria, you’re nineteen. You should be out at uni and enjoying parties, not stuck in this place.”
“I guess fate had other ideas.”
“Don’t say that.” He took my hand. “You’re a beautiful person; you shouldn’t be here with us. You should be out living your life.”
“He’d find me, and you know he would.”
“Then go to America with your mum. Have the life you should have. I’ll come with you. We could go together. I can do this anywhere.”
I tapped his arm playfully. “Don’t be silly.”
“I’d give up everything to help you.”
“I don’t want you to give up your life, Callum. I won’t ask that of you.”
I’d never ask him to risk his life for mine, and that’s what he’d be doing, going against Jason. He was already risking enough to take me to my appointment tomorrow.
“Let’s just eat snacks, watch films, play games, and be normal. That’s all I want with you.”
“I don’t know how board games are normal.”
“I used to play them with my parents when I was younger, and they were still together.”
“What happened with your parents?”
“They just stopped communicating. Think I was thirteen when my dad left. Then, when I was sixteen, my mum remarried and moved us to London, and I gained a stepbrother. One of the last times I saw my dad was just before I left on my birthday. I never heard from him again.”
“I didn’t realise you had a stepbrother,” he said, surprised.
“Yeah, he was older, never really there, and moved out before the divorce,” I replied, getting it out as quickly as possible.
I didn’t need any reminders of Sebastian. He’d left me and was never coming back. I was just a silly girl, thinking something was going to happen between us.
“How did your mum end up in New York?”
“Well, that relationship was a disaster, so when the divorce came through, she wanted to start again, and my auntie lived out there.”
“You didn’t want to go?”
“I was at university at the time, and I’d not long met your brother …”
I probably should have gone. Then, I wouldn’t have been stuck here in this terrible situation.
But then I wouldn’t have met Callum.
I sipped my coffee. “What about you? I don’t really know much about your family.”
“I was a little shit.” He chuckled.
