Page 41 of Wanting Cameron

I walk into the bathroom and throw the frame as hard as I can at the tile floor. Glass glitters in the overhead light. The frame is split, and Gwen’s face is fractured under pieces of splintered glass.

I’ve broken the only perfect thing I had, and I don’t know how to fix it.

CAMERON

I push through my apartment door, and Liam looks up from the couch where he’s scrolling through his phone.

“Hey, that was fast— Cam? What’s wrong?”

I can’t answer.

“Cameron?” Liam stands. “What happened?”

I shake my head and walk past him toward my bedroom. I need to be alone to think. I close the door behind me and lean against it, sliding until I’m on the floor with my knees pulled to my chest.

She didn’t show. I waited for twenty minutes, and she never came. And then Lucien was there, walking toward me, looking like he wanted to say something shitty, and I couldn’t… I couldn’t deal with him on top of everything else.

A knock on the door behind me.

“Cam?” Liam’s voice is concerned. “Do you want to talk? Or should I just go?”

I press my palms against my eyes and take a shuddering breath.

I pull the door open from the floor. Liam’s standing there with his hands in his pockets. He looks shocked, his mouth making an O before saying, “Come on.”

He lifts me, and we move to the living room. I sink onto the couch, wanting to disappear into the soft leather. Liam sits in the armchair across from me, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

“What happened?” His hazel eyes look into mine, insisting on an answer.

I stare at my hands. “I met someone…on Lure…a couple of months ago.”

“Okay.”

“She called me. Said she was on campus and wanted to meet. That’s why I rushed out.” My voice sounds hollow. “At the café across the street. I waited, and she never showed.”

Liam’s quiet for a moment. Finally, he asks, “Did you give her money?”