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She pulled away at the last minute, breathing hard. “What game are you playing, Tom?”
I swallowed hard, stepping back. “I’m not playing any games, Rosie. I promise.”
Confused as hell, yes. But no games.
“What about Ainslee?”
My shoulders sagged. “She’s not pregnant. We had a long chat, and we’ve agreed to remain friends. Platonic. Nothing more.”
Rosie nodded, and was that a sigh of relief? Why was there still this feeling of an electrical current between us, charged and dangerous?
She hurt me once, and I never knew why.Fuck it.
“Four years ago,” I blurted and Rosie started, her chest heaving with laboured breaths. “Why did you dump me?” Anger flashed in Rosie’s eyes but I steamrolled ahead. “You promised a future, said you wanted it all, and then dumped me. The least you could do, before I have to traipse across a mountain with you for two days, is tell me why.”
Rosie spluttered a laugh. “YouthinkIdumpedyou? Oh, this is rich.”
From shame and guilt to righteous indignation in under five seconds. What a rollercoaster with Rosie.
“Don’t even try to deny that you dumped me by instant message.”
“It’s easy to deny it when it’s not true. You dumped me by instant message.” Rosie rapidly shook her head. “Are you kidding me right now?”
We were both breathing hard, frowning, and so close. Wanting to tear each other apart and devour the other at the same time.
“I have proof,” I ground out. “It was you who ended our relationship, what we were.”
“Cute.” Rosie straightened, her cheeks turning red. “I’m not delusional, Tom. You broke my heart that day.” Her hand flew to her mouth, her cheeks deepening in colour.
My own heart ached—torn between wanting to soothe her and being angry at how she was continuing with this lie. “Who cares, anyway? You were with a guy a month later.”
It was a cheap shot, but it worked. Rosie took a step back, outrage flashing across her face.
“You were kissing a guy,” I continued, embellishing the memory. “An academic-lecturer guy at the university scholars information afternoon. I was ready to ask you for a second chance, but you looked really cosy.”
“I don’t know what you saw, but I wasn’t seeing anyone then. I didn’t date anymore for at least six months after us.”
The guy had given Rosie a sloppy kiss on her cheek, not her kissing him, but she hadn’t pushed the guy away.
“I changed unis after that info session. Dropped out of the scholars program. And your heart seemed to be healed just fine if some guy was kissing you.”
Watching a tear slide down Rosie’s cheek was a kick in my guts.Well done, Tom. You asked for a truce and instead, made her cry.
I folded my arms to stop myself pulling her into me and apologising and taking back my words.Why is she lying about dumping me?
She swiped her cheek and left without a word, heading around the side of the house.
Right now, it hurt just as much as the day she dumped me by a DM, like the scar had been ripped open again, the wound raw and bleeding.
I paced back and forth, and found Pete standing on the top step to my room.
“What. The fuck. Was that about?” he said.
“Things happened with Rosie at my eighteenth birthday.”
“When you say things, you mean—”
I stopped. “Red hot amazing things.”
