“I’m coming over. We need to talk.”
“Now isn’t a good time.”
“It really can’t wait.”
“Is this about the drinks you had with Griffin?”
He huffs into the phone.
“Yes.”
“He already told me.”
“Shit. He did? Are you okay? Wait, what did he say?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes. It matters. I want to know that he told you the truth.”
“And what’s the truth?” I ask. It only makes sense that I hear them both out.
“Is he there now?” Tobias asks.
“Yes.”
“Fuck. Okay. I didn’t want to say this to you over the phone, but I think he’s cheating on you.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I can’t prove it, but I get this feeling that he’s doing something shitty, and you deserve better than him.”
Oh god. Griffin was right.
“I asked you to make friends with him, Tobias, not fight with him.”
“It was hard to—can I just come over? I hate having this conversation over the phone.”
I take a breath to hold back the threatening tears.
“Why would you …” I can barely get the words out. “Is this because of the writing thing?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Are you acting like this because you’re confused and want to vent your frustration on someone else, so you picked Griffin?”
“What? No.”
“Because that’s a shitty thing to do. He’s not cheating on me, Tobias, and it’s even shittier of you to make that accusation when, as you said, you don’t even have proof.”
“Nat, just let me come over so we can talk.”
“No. I don’t want to be the next person on your list. Just because your life isn’t going how you wanted it to doesn’t mean you need to bring me down with you.”
I place my hand over my heart.
Why would he say something like that to me? Why would he want to hurt me?
“All right, look. I’m not sure what he said to you, but let’s talk about it, okay? Maybe you can take the night to cool off and we can talk tomorrow.”
