The door to the restroom swings open and I barely have the chance to force an irritated look back onto my face before Teddy comes marching in. He closes the door behind him, leans against it so no one can follow him, and then stares questioningly at me, arms folded over his chest.
‘Pretty sure that’s a fire hazard,’ I murmur, still dabbing at my shirt with the useless paper towel in an incredibly see-through attempt to avoid looking at him and having to answer the mountain of questions I’m sure he has for me.
‘Pretty sure you’ve lost your goddamn mind,’ Teddy quips back. ‘What the fuck was that, Ash?’
Despite everything, I can’t help but let out a dry laugh. ‘I’m asking myself the same thing.’
I put down the towel and finally face him. He’s staring at me like he’s genuinely worried I’ve gone off the deep end. Which is fair, I suppose. Not only did I message him frantically a few days ago, asking if it was possible for him to get me on the guest list for tonight – something I’ve never done, as I prefer to avoid events like this, or any events really – butnow this? I’m surprised he hasn’t called for an ambulance to cart me off yet.
‘Are you alright?’ Teddy asks, giving me a once-over. He’s still looking at me like I’ve sprouted a second head. ‘They’re saying she shoved you?’
Idly, I wonder if I should be alarmed by the intensity of the anger that suddenly washes through me. Less than five minutes have passed and already the reality of what actually happened has been distorted, twisted and moulded into something a hundred times uglier than it actually was.
‘Imani didn’tshoveme,’ I say with a scowl Teddy definitely doesn’t deserve. ‘She just chucked her drink over me.’
‘Because that’ssomuch bett—Wait.’ His eyes go wide and he holds up a hand. ‘Imani? As in, the future Mrs Vouvalis, Imani? That Imani?’
My expression turns sheepish. ‘The one and only.’
Teddy runs a hand down his face and groans. ‘I know marrying you isn’t exactly high up on her list of things she’s excited for, but why, and pardon my language, the fuck would she do that?’
A very large part of me wants to come clean and tell Teddy everything about my plan with Imani. He’d probably be able to help with it, if I’m being honest. But then I’d have to explain to him why I agreed to go ahead with the plan in the first place and I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s embarrassing enough to admit to myself just how patheticically I am craving my father’s love; I don’t need to verbalise it to my brothers.
‘Come on,’ Teddy pokes at me. ‘Why does your future wife hate you?’
This was her plan, I remind myself yet again even as the wordhatebounces around in my skull like a pinball.
She wants people to think that we can’t stand each other.
She wants drama.
Tension.
A simmering loathing that everyone can feel the second we walk into a room together. So why does hearing Teddy say it out loud get under my skin so badly?
Why does it bother me so much that right now, people are probably whispering about how much she despises me, or wondering what she could’ve done to me to inspire such loathing?
I can’t explain it.
‘We have a history,’ I say before Teddy can ask again.
At that, Teddy raises his brows. ‘A history,’ he repeats, clearly unimpressed. ‘So you do know each other?’
I nod, briefly wondering if I’ll ever stop feeling guilty about all of this.
‘Yes. Kind of. We dated back at university.’ I spend the next two minutes going over the fictional past Imani and I concocted, embellishing a bad break-up that left us both wounded and bitter. By the time I’m finished, Teddy looks like I’ve just slapped him.
‘And you didn’t think any of this would’ve been important to mention before?’ he asks, looking genuinely offended that I’ve omitted this piece of information about my life. ‘You know, Dad probably wouldn’t have—’
‘He already knows,’ I say bitterly. The idea that my father would do anything to spare me some pain is laughable. ‘And he’s already said I have to fix things with her.’
Teddy shakes his head. ‘And this is your idea of fixing things?’
‘No.’ I can’t help but scowl at my brother, even though this is exactly what we wanted to happen. ‘I didn’t mean for it to go down like this. He’s going to be pissed, isn’t he?’
Teddy scoffs. ‘It’s not him you need to be worried about. It’sherfather. You know what Malcolm Davies is like.’
I didn’t until Imani filled me in, but Teddy is right. If my father is angry at how tonight has unfolded, I have no doubt that Imani’s father will be practically apoplectic with rage.
