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Lukas’s face reddened. “Geez, no, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry. For everything.”
“Was that your first time cheating on me?” I speared him with a look. If Lukas truly wanted to make amends, I needed the truth.
He took off his hat and ran a hand through his blond hair. It was longer and lighter than the last time I saw him. “No,” he muttered, the corners of his mouth turning downward. “That wasn’t our first time fooling around.”
I gripped my mug, trying to control the erratic hammering of my heart. White hot rage flared within. Lukas and I broke up a year ago. What he did behind my back shouldn’t matter anymore. The past should remain in the past. But the more I tried to convince myself of that, the more I realized how much the truth hurt.
“And Seline wasn’t the only woman I saw on the side.”
“Stop.” I held up a hand, not wanting to hear anymore. “Why did you continue dating me if you wanted to see other people? Or insist we get engaged? You should have broken up with me. Why string me along?”
“I stayed with you because I needed to have a steady girlfriend. For appearances.”
I wanted to scream. A year and a half of my life wasted by a man who only dated me to project the right image. So much anger at his cruelty crashed over me; I was practically drowning in it. Joy and my mother were wrong. This conversation would do nothing to make me feel better.
“Sorry,” Lukas mumbled, playing with the brim of his hat. “I never meant to hurt you. I’m trying to be honest and make things right here.”
Did he really believe the words coming out of his mouth? “You just admitted to stringing me along. How does that make it right? Did you even love me?”
Lukas nodded. “I did.”
I gave a bitter laugh. “Then you and I have very different definitions of love. You don’t cheat on someone you love. You think saying sorry will fix things? Well, I hate to break it to you, but it won’t. What happened with Seline left me devastated, and your fans skewered me online. I had to stop checking my messages for fear of what I’d find. They called me names, told me the world would be a better place if I wasn’t in it. Do you have any idea what that does to a person?”
Lukas took off his sunglasses. He had dark circles beneath his eyes and there was a weariness in his expression. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea how vicious things got.”
“No, of course you didn’t. Just like you failed to see why breaking up with me would be better than dating me to get ahead in your career.” I held back the tears that threatened to fall. “Our relationship was all about you. You’re selfish, Lukas Alexander, and you don’t care what you do to others as long as you get what you want.”
Lukas looked at me as if I’d struck him. “You’re right about everything. I truly am sorry. That’s why I’m here. I’m trying to change.”
“Save the acting for the screen.” No longer wanting to be a part of this conversation, I shot him the darkest look I could summon and stood, ready to leave.
“Wait. Please. I deserve everything you said. I accept that I can never fix our relationship, but I’m begging you for a little more of your time. There’s one more thing I’d like to talk about—the reason Wyatt came here.”
The skin on the back of my neck tingled.
Don’t listen to him. He’s just baiting you.
I stepped away from the table, but curiosity got the better of me, and I sat back down. “What do you mean?” I hissed, not wanting to draw the attention of the customers around us. “Wyatt said that he came to Sunnyvale to do a talk at Landry’s before going to FanCon.”
Lukas slid his sunglasses and hat back on. “That’s not the only reason. There’s this role in an upcoming romantic comedy, and my agent thought I’d have a better chance of getting the part if I showed I was leading-man material. If I had a steady girlfriend like before.”
I rolled my eyes. “Please. As if anyone would believe that you’d settled down.”
“Well, they believed we were once in love. That’s the real reason Wyatt came to Sunnyvale. He was supposed to convince you to pretend-date me for a couple of months so I could land the role.”
Dread twisted my stomach. I didn’t want to believe him, but it explained concerns I’d had but couldn’t quite put my finger on. Wyatt hadn’t spoken to me in over a year, and then he randomly turned up in my hometown to do a book signing? Us being thrown into each other’s lives again had seemed a happy coincidence, but now the rose-colored glasses were off, and I saw what a naïve assumption that was.
“What did Wyatt say?” I forced out.
“At first, he agreed. But then he refused to go through with it because he’d fallen in love with you.” Lukas lowered his gaze. “Or perhaps he was always in love with you. I kind of let it slip that I suspected he had feelings for you before we started dating.”
I stared at him in astonishment. “You were aware that Wyatt liked me, but you still asked me out?”
Lukas rubbed his temples. “I know. I’m the worst sort of person. Wyatt was understandably furious when he found out. Look, I get that I don’t deserve a second chance, but I’m trying to make things right between you and me because it’s important that I own up to my mistakes, and also…”
“You miss Wyatt,” I finished for him.
He nodded. “My brother’s always been there for me. When we were kids, he followed me around like a shadow. He looked up to me. Even when I wasn’t getting roles, Wyatt was still my biggest fan, and now he won’t speak to me. With good reason,” Lukas added hastily on seeing my displeasure. “I never should have said that he owed me his fame. He’s an amazing writer in his own right and I shouldn’t have held the movie option over his head.”
