I roll my eyes. ‘You would.’
She wipes her nose with her wrist. ‘It’s not like you’re capable of being monogamous anyway.’
‘I’m not capable? I haven’t texted another girl inmonths. Look at my phone.’ I go to my bag.
‘Don’t bother.’
‘I’m being so serious right now.’
‘Don’t pretend it’s even a little bit about me; it’s because of your reputation.’
I go still, my brain spiralling in a thousand different directions. ‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying,’ she sniffs, eyelashes glistening, ‘I know you swore off your old life to get back to Volare.’ Fuck the phone. Sheknew? All this time? ‘Don’t stand there and lie like this has anything to do withme.’
‘Not at first, I’ll give you that, but doesn’t it tell you something that I broke it to sleep with you in the first place?’
She shrugs. ‘I was the only one there.’
Like you were the only offer I got, sweetheart. Cute.
Scoring points isn’t going to win me any favours so I swallow it and move on. ‘And ever since Monaco I’ve barely even looked at another girl. It’s only been you, Jules – for almost two months.’
‘Am I supposed to feel special that you’ve lied to me since the day we met?’
What is it with this woman and semantics? ‘I prefer the wordomitted.’
‘You don’t want a girlfriend, Tiago,’ she says, sounding almost bored, ‘you just want a leg up in your career.’
She’s not listening to me. She’s defensive and lashing out, unable or unwilling to understand what I’m telling her.
‘I’m not him, Jules,’ I say quietly.
I can see it in her eyes: I’ve touched a nerve – and I don’t think it’s a good one. ‘What, successful in your career?’
This fuckingwoman! Screw trying to talk her down. That was a low blow and she knows it. She had no right to hit below the belt when all I’m doing is showing her what she means to me.
I have to unclench my teeth to speak. ‘At least I don’t punish people for trying to care about me.’
‘You don’t care about me. Being with me is the easiest way back to Volare.’
‘Are you kidding me? I wanted you knowing you’d never want me back – or never let yourself want me back – and that was fine. We could see each other without a soul knowing, and it worked for me. But now I think you do want me, but there’s a little ember of realness emerging so you burn it to the ground.’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘You flirt, you charm, you collect people like they’re proof you’re untouchable. You smile to the camera, pretend like you’re completely open with your fans. But in reality, no one knows you – not where you live, what you drink, what your real hair colour is, what you’re scared of. But I do. You showed me the real you and I loved what I saw, but that wall’s up so high not even the Great Wall of?—’
Her slap comes out of nowhere. I hear it before I feel it. It’s not the first time a woman’s hit me, but somehow it stings the most. My cheek pulses in time with my heartbeat as I hold it, heat radiating into my palm.
She doesn’t look at me as she snatches her bag and disappears below deck. For the first time in my life, I’m left utterly speechless.
Chapter 35
TIAGO
Itry to focus on our neighbourhood speeding past but it’s proving nearly impossible because Isa’s gaze is searing into the side of my head. ‘Quit looking at me like that,’ I snarl without turning around.
‘How would you know where I’m looking? You haven’t made eye contact with me since last night.’
