Page 73 of The Soulmate Bakery

The sight of him alone would’ve been enough to alarm me.

Except, he wasn’t alone.

Clutching on to the sleeve of Orion’s leather jacket as he walked to his seat was none other than Celine.

They were sitting right in front of us – Orion’s seat lined up to mine, and Celine’s to Silas’s. Orion hadn’t noticed and neither had Celine because of the darkness of the cinema. Though, I’d be surprised if the siren noticed anything beyond Orion, given the way she was leaning into him, bringing her head closer to whisper in his ear.

I tried to remember if he had mentioned taking Celine on a date, but my mind was filled with the day we had spent at the Treasure Trove, mapping out new recipes and learning new spells. Not a mention of Celine.

And I’m not sure why but I felt a pinch of hurt in my chest, like someone had pressed their thumb against a bruise on my heart. I shouldn’t have cared; I had told Orion my feelings for him were long gone. That jealousy should’ve also been gone now.

But it wasn’t.

My envy was louder than any sound in my head. It was filling my veins like poison. When I saw Celine reaching up to touch his face, a sense of possessiveness ran through my body like a live wire, and I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t handle that feeling. I was never this possessive over Silas, even knowing that a lot of other girls at school liked him. But with Orion, it was different.

And it was just as her fingers were about to touch his skin that I decided to kick the back of Orion’s chair, hard enough that he jolted away from her oncoming touch and shot an incredulous look over his shoulder. Directly at me.

Our eyes met, and he didn’t look startled. He didn’t even bat an eyelash. A smirk curved around Orion’s mouth, and, without a second thought, he turned right back around.

I saw red.

Violent. Red.

I wanted to do something, like yank at his hair. But I couldn’t. Not with Silas sitting next to me, stiller than a statue. Or Celine, sitting further away now, and giving me small glances over her shoulder.

Instead, I had to sit through the whole movie, staring at the back of Orion’s head. My gaze burning a hole into his skull. I couldn’t believe he was here, and, more importantly, I couldn’t understand why.

Why was he here with Celine?

Why did he come here at all?

Was it about me – or was I just being vain?

Not even Silas could distract me from the questions swirling in my head. Usually, I would’ve been paying attention to every detail of Silas, trying to figure out what he liked and didn’t like. But today, that was impossible. So much so that when the credits finally rolled on to the screen, I stood up, and, in the process, kicked Orion’s seat again. I heard a little grunt but refused to apologize.

‘Hey,’ I said to Silas, who shot me a quizzical look. ‘I’m just going to head to the bathroom really quick. Meet outside?’

The werewolf nodded, giving me a wan smile that didn’t match his usual mood, and I was scooching past cinemagoers without a second thought. I made a beeline straight out of the cinema and considered pulling out my phone to text Orion to meet me outside.

But I didn’t have to. Moments later, he was strutting out of the cinema himself, hands tucked into his pockets, an easy look on his face.

‘You know, I could have you arrested for assault,’ Orion said as a greeting, a smile ticking at his mouth.

It wasn’t what I expected him to say, and just the sound of his easy cadence made my blood boil.

‘Why are you here with Celine?’ I asked, seething.

Orion didn’t flinch or call out my hypocrisy of asking him any questions. If he was on a date with someone, who was I to care?

‘Last time I checked you and wolfie don’t own the cinema,’ Orion countered, still too relaxed for my liking.

‘You knew I was coming here, so why did you choose to bring Celine here?’ I demanded.

‘She wanted to see a movie,’ Orion said, but then his tell became so obvious.

‘Lies! You forget Hawthorne, I know when you’re lying. That little twitch on the side of your mouth, yeah, I know about it.’ I strode towards him, practically poking the side of his mouth of my fingertip. ‘You’re sabotaging what was supposed to be an amazing date with Silas!’

‘If it was meant to be amazing, my presence shouldn’t have ruined it,’ he shot back, and there was that heat to his voice that I was looking for. ‘Is it bothering you that I’m here with Celine?’