Nate laughed incredulously. “What?”
I gestured to the screen on the center display. “When you were talking to yourbrother, your phone connected to the car.”
Nate squirmed. “It’s just a joke between brothers.”
“So explain it to me.”
“Why are you all over me?”
“Why are you getting defensive?” My heart was pounding now. He wasdefinitelyhiding something. Suddenly, his clothes weren’t the comfort they’d been a few minutes ago. They scraped against my skin like sandpaper. “If it’s just your brother, then tell me about him.”
“Listen, babe, you’re making too much of this. It’s not your fault, I think your history is—”
“Myhistory?”
Nate pulled into the driveway. Before I could think twice about it, I snatched his phone and ran into the house. How dare he use my past against me.
He shouted after me, but I locked myself inside the hallway bathroom. My back was against the wood, hands shaking and my vision blurred with tears. Nate once joked that all of his passwords were sixty-nine. I quashed the guilt I felt for invading his privacy and put 6969 into his phone. It worked.
There wasn’t anything in his texts or his recently deleted photos. Nate was pounding on the door, thundering fists seeming to hammer my back through the wood. I set his phone on the counter, taking a moment to just stare at it.
I could let it go. I could give his phone back and apologize for overreacting.
“Eli, open the door!”
The sound of wood splintering sent that thought right out the window. He wouldn’t be so aggressive if he didn’t have something to hide.
I snatched the phone again and found the contact, then hit “Call” before I chickened out.
A low, rumbling chuckle echoed through the speaker and sent a shiver down my spine. “I knew you’d come running back. They always do.”
I shook off the image of what that voice must’ve done to Nate—what it nearly did tome. Nate still bashed at thedoor, but I held strong.
“Hello?” God, I wish my voice hadn’t been breaking.
“Oh… you’re not Nathan.”
“No, I’m his boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?”
One final thud, and Nate’s footsteps retreated. I let out a sigh of relief. “Yes, boyfriend.”
“Oh, shit.” The guy fell silent. The only sound was my uneven panting, my lungs having forgotten how to work. “Um, what’s your name?”
“Eli,” I choked out.
“I am so sorry, Eli. He never mentioned a boyfriend.”
“So you two have been… seeing each other?”
“If by ‘seeing each other’ you mean hooking up? Yes, we have.”
I slid to the floor, drawing my knees to my chest. Refusing to let this stranger hear me break down, I muted the call and bit down on my fist, hot tears burning a path down my face. I took gulps of shuddering air, but they didn’t make me feel any better.
“Eli?” the guy asked after a few tense moments.
With a deep inhale, I centered myself and unmuted the call. “I’m still here. And for what it’s worth, Nate doesn’t have a boyfriend anymore.”
